Camp Jupiter and the Lost Demigod
by Imagination Is A Gift
Summary: First story in my prequel Jeyna series (re-written). After Reyna arrives at Camp Jupiter, Jason finds his life becoming increasingly different. Struggling from the giant change in her life, Reyna manages to make a friend. They realise just how much they needed each other before they met. And now, they're needed for a rescue quest. Canon-compliant prequel. Platonic!Jeyna.
1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note: This is a re-write of one of my stories "Better as a Pair". Some things will stay the same, some things will be completely different. Whether you are an old fan or a new one is irrelevant.**

 **Important: I'm an aspiring author, which means I use fanfiction as practise. This series focuses on practising development. Character development and relationship development. For example, Gwen. In Heroes of Olympus she was said to be kind and bright. So in this story she will start as mean and cold, and I will DEVELOP her to be nicer.  
One of the things pointed out to me in the last series was that things seemed different to the book. That is because this story is set, like, four years before and I'm going to DEVELOP things to canon. I'm not just going to keep everything the same throughout the entire series.**

 **It's also good to note that this is to explore Camp Jupiter and New Rome more thoroughly. Especially the city. Is it like a normal city? How far can businesses go here? How much can one person achieve in comparison to the real world? Is there a class system? The city will be explored in serious depth.**

 **Sorry about the long author's note. I just wanted to explain the purpose of this story. Don't expect everything to be exactly the same as HoO. It's all about development. -Izzy**

* * *

 **Chapter One**

The blinding sunlight shone into her line of vision whenever she opened her eyes, so she decided it was best not to open her eyes. She rolled over, pulling the thin covers tighter over her body, clinging to the warmth. Now if only she could block out the noise. There were too many girls in the room, buzzing around as they prepared for the day. She heard a few things of mascara open, a few brushed running through hair, and a few leather straps keeping golden metal to their bodies.

"You aren't going to get very far in the legion by staying in bed all day," said a voice near her. There was an athletic girl that jumped down from the top bunk. Reyna had met her yesterday during war games and had grown a lot of respect for her. Although, she forgot to learn her name.

"Five more minutes," Reyna pleaded. She tried to pull the covers closer to her, but the girl wouldn't let her. She had dark skin and buzz cut hair. She was visibly stronger than Reyna, and surprisingly beautiful.

She ripped the covers away from Reyna, who felt too exposed. "Seriously, breakfast is in five minutes. Get up! Reyna, is it?"

Reyna nodded as she sat up and rubbed her eyes. "Yeah. You're… Catherine?"

"Caitlyn," the girl corrected, smirking. "Come on, you can stick with me for the day. I'll show you the ropes." She abandoned Reyna and took the covers with her. Feeling exposed lying in bed, Reyna got to her feet. She was wearing a borrowed pair of pyjama trousers that were too big for her and a tank top.

She looked around before heading into the bathroom and looking into one of the mirrors. Her eyes were red, and she had bags. Her lips were dry and chapped and her skin was pale. She had been running from monsters for two weeks before she found Camp Jupiter. Before that, she was with the wolves for a week, and before that… before that was the pirates. Over the last few months she had been through hell. Always on the move or clad in chains, claws in her leg or a knife at her throat. She tried to remember the last time she felt safe and happy.

"Can I borrow that?" she asked one of the girls next to her. She was holding a chap stick and a tube of mascara. The last time she was happy, she was on C.C's Island, wearing make-up and braiding hair with Hylla. Maybe if she could trick her mind into thinking she was still there, then she could, maybe, feel happy in her new home.

The girl didn't reply so Reyna just snatched the make-up, turning to the mirror and making herself a little more presentable. That's what Hylla always said. Presentable. Reyna hated that word.

She was only twelve, but she knew how to work eyeliner when she wanted to. On C.C's island, she often had to do intricate little patterns and designs. She was also a master hair stylist, but she couldn't decide what to do with it, so she just brushed through the thick waves and let it stay down.

"Here," said a voice near her shoulder. Reyna turned to Caitlyn, who handed her a pile of clothes. "I asked one of the younger girls to lend a few things," she said. Caitlyn was at least sixteen, so she wasn't exactly Reyna's size.

"Thank you," Reyna smiled, taking them. "What's up with the work-out pants?"

"It's training day," Caitlyn winked. "Good luck." She left Reyna to get changed and she did, into a pair of black leggings and a light blue tank top. She slipped into the trainers and looked in the mirror, forcing a smile.

Of course she was nervous. She didn't know anybody here. So far, nobody seemed to like her, and she was thrown into a Roman training ground, which happened to look like a military base. The only time she had ever exercised before was running from the monsters or pirates. Before then, she spent her days with the sunshine on the beach, braiding girl's hair and doing their make-up. Spying on Circe as she turned boys into guinea pigs… yeah, those were the days.

When she walked out of the bathroom, everyone was filing out of the barracks. She followed them, grabbing a denim jacket on her way out. It was over-sized and smelled like home. It once belonged to Hylla, so Reyna had kept it with her.

The eating place was crowded with people, sat around different tables, talking and laughing as wind spirits served food around them. Despite Caitlyn saying she could spend the day with her, she was called away at the last minute to do some Centurion stuff. Reyna didn't know what a Centurion was but it sounded like a title. Unfortunately, she was left alone, facing a room full of people she didn't know what to think of.

She walked through the room, studying a few faces but being careful not to make eye contact with anyone. She plucked an apple from a nearby wind spirit's platter and found a quiet, uninhabited table in the corner of the room. She sat by herself for a minute, picking at the apple and letting herself drift into her own thoughts.

It didn't take long before she realised that some of the nearby tables surrounding her had gone quiet. They were all looking at her.

"Come on," said a voice at her ear. There was a girl with light orange hair standing next to her. She linked her arm through Reyna's and pulled her to her feet. "You don't want to sit there, Honey." She had green eyes and thick curly with a headband in. She wasn't incredibly skinny, but she didn't look like she was supposed to be. She wasn't over-weight, exactly. She had a very curvy figure and big lips, and she wore a white polo short tucked into a red active-wear skirt with a sparkly silver belt around her waist. She was about the same age as Reyna.

"Why not?" Reyna asked as the girl pulled her over to a different table. She sat Reyna down and everyone turned away, going back to their own conversations. She plopped herself down next to Reyna, at a table full of people and smiled a somewhat sarcastic smile.

"Trust me, I'm saving you," she said. "Don't worry, every newbie makes the same mistake."

"No they don't," said some guy at the table. The girl gave him a mean look. "What? They don't!"

"Okay, why is that table reserved?" Reyna demanded, crossing her arms as she faced the group. She didn't like being told what and what not to do, especially by people she'd only just met. "And why is it such a big deal? Who even are you?"

"I'm Gwen," the girl with the light orange hair said. "And to answer the rest of your questions… well if you were to look to your left?" She trailed off as she said it. The entire forum went quiet as everyone turned to the entrance. A boy walked in, nothing particularly special about him.

A few people raised from their seats as he walked in. If you looked closely, you could see him roll his eyes. He walked through, looking around the differently tables as if considering sitting down. But he lightly sighed before sitting in the lonely one Reyna wanted to sit in. He made no eye contact with anyone, and eventually, people started talking again, and the people who stood sat down. Reyna turned back to the table she was sat on. "Who's that kid?"

"That's Jason," the boy from earlier said. "Warning: steer clear."

"Why?"

"He's kind of a big shot around here," Gwen shrugged. "He… He's the son of Jupiter, the king of the Gods, so he's more powerful than anyone else here. Plus, he's been here his whole life, so he's a better fighter, better Demigod than all of us."

"We're not worthy," the boy joked.

"If he's so awesome then why does he have no friends?" Reyna asked, putting her apple down with a new sense of interest. The boy didn't look special. Blonde hair, tan, pretty muscular although he didn't seem much older than she was. He wore a purple camp t-shirt and track pants.

"He has loads of friends," Gwen said, quickly, as if it was a sin to think he didn't. As if it was dangerous to think he didn't. "Everyone here is his friend!" She leaned in as if telling Reyna this was a secret. "Everyone!"

Reyna leaned in as well, mimicking her. "Then why is nobody sitting with him?"

Gwen leaned back, offended by Reyna's mimic. "Don't even walk down that road," she advised. "Just live and let live, that's my motto."

"Your motto is: Nothing under seven inches," the boy mused.

Gwen paused before smiling at Reyna. "It's about my shoes." A horn blew somewhere in the distance and everybody stood up and started filing out. "Trust me, don't sit by Jason. For the good of all."

-0-0-0-0-0-

Training day. A field full of kids with knives and swords, doing weird karate kicks and flips. Reyna, who was accustomed to hairbrushes and manicures, could not feel more out-of-place. "We have two newbies," the instructor announced. "Gwen and Reyna. Play nice guys."

Everyone waved to Gwen and ignored Reyna, who was okay with that. They all seemed to know Gwen, and Reyna wondered how she was new. The kids eyed them up, not expecting much from them, clearly. Reyna scoffed. She had just escaped a ship full of pirates, ran from an army of monsters and trained with wolves. Despite being used to the luxuries, Reyna could fight. And she was ready to prove that.

"Warm up with a couple laps," the instructor called. The kids took off running around this track that surrounded the training field. It was huge but everyone seemed at ease with it. Reyna followed them. She overtook a few, but overall, she was behind everyone else. She had underestimated the track. Sure, running from monsters had been exhausting, but Roman expectation were a lot worse. By the time they came to a halt, Reyna was panting, her hands on her knees and sweat on her forehead.

Gwen came to a stop next to her and continued jogging on the spot. "You okay, sweetie?" she asked, a look of concern plastered on her face. "All newbies take a while to get used to it." Reyna looked around them, at the group of kids who were already getting their breath back.

"I'm fine," Reyna said, straightening up and controlling her breathing. "You?"

Gwen smiled, but something about her grin was dishonest and patronising. "Peachy."

"Well, you're new too, right?" Reyna asked.

Gwen paused. "Well yeah, but I've lived in the city for like, six years, so I kind of took part in training before. Despite the rules." She winked at Reyna and jogged off to the instructor. "Can I lead the warm up, today?"

The instructor nodded at Gwen, who bounced over to the front of the class. Reyna waited for a second before walking into the line, between a few grouchy kids. Gwen bounced around, taking everyone through a warm up routine they had clearly done before. Reyna, the newest and most clueless, fell a step behind everyone else. Gwen spoke quickly and quietly with the instructor before turning to Reyna. "Reyna, sweetie," she said, too kindly. "Why don't you sit today out and watch? Just so you get the feel of things."

Reyna grumbled as she went to sit not too far away on the grass to observe the group instead of taking part. After the warm up of stretches and lunges and jumps, etcetera, the entire group ran two laps around the track again. Reyna decided she didn't like Gwen.

After a while, Reyna got restless and started pacing. Maybe it was best for her to sit out that one day, just so she knew what to do before doing it. But still, she didn't believe Gwen had had the best intention when she excluded Reyna. When she turned for another lap of pacing she almost walked into a group of kids, mostly a few years older, sprinting past her on the track. She backed away from them, but one caught her eye.

It was the blonde boy who had reserved that breakfast table. Jason, or something? The one the other kids were afraid of. Or, at least, they seemed to be. He was running around in the advanced group, a small collection of boys surrounding him. He came to a stop when he saw Reyna watching him.

The boys around him stopped as well and crowded around him, but he waved them off. They practically ran away from him. Him and Reyna kept eye contact for about five seconds before he turned away and ran off again.

"Reyna?" Gwen called from the group. "If this group is not satisfactory, feel free to join the advanced group you're staring at, but good luck surviving the first day."

"She's not staring at the group," some kid said. "She's staring at Jason."

Reyna huffed and shook them off, re-joining the group. The day didn't get any better for Reyna. The instructor claimed to be giving Reyna and Gwen equal opportunities, as the two new kids. But he didn't. He picked Gwen for everything!

Every demonstration where he wanted a new kid? Gwen. Every kid-led activity? Gwen. Every skill that Reyna had and wanted to show off? Gwen. Every time she tried to volunteer, the class voted for Gwen. She had heard the quotes: "Let Gwen take this one", "Gwen knows it better" and "Gwen, you! Reyna, you can take the next one" countless times in one day.

After a long while, they went to lunch. Reyna tried to walk past her, but Gwen grabbed Reyna by the arm and pulled her to the seat next to her, away from Jason's precious table.

"Look, stop obsessing about it," Gwen said, leaning across the table and grabbing Reyna's wrist. "Jason's popular, but he eats alone. That's just how things work. Now just… let it be."

"She's right, you know," said the same boy who was sat by her earlier.

"I'm sorry, who are you?" Reyna asked, turning to him. "Gwen makes herself known enough by herself, without an echo needed."

"He's not my echo," Gwen said, defensively. "He's an ass."

"I'm Dakota," he smirked. He had curly black hair and eyes that shone almost purple in the light. He was tall and fairly muscular and tan, and had a face that made you think he wasn't to be trusted. "Nice to meet you."

"He's a man-whore," Gwen said.

"She's a bitch," Dakota said.

Reyna looked between the two. "Gods, anyone would think you two had a crush on each other," she commented. The rest of the table laughed, including Gwen, who seemed to find it funny. Dakota, however, got out of his seat to go back to the training grounds.

"I say this with all the honest bones I have," he said, leaning down on the table and smirking at Reyna. "I hope Gwen dies."

Reyna's face fell, all joking gone. "What?!"

"Yeah," Gwen nodded, as if she got it all the time. "He means it as well." He winked before walking off. The horns blew for lunch to end and everybody started making their way back to the training fields.

They all gathered back around on the training field and the instructor told them all to face him while he talks. "Monster attacks," he mused. "Let's start common. Who knows how to fight a hellhound? Without a weapon. Hands up."

Reyna put her hand up. She had been in that situation twice while travelling from the wolf house. Gwen also put her hand up, and surprise, surprise, he picked her.

"Just like every other dog, hellhounds will see eye contact as a challenge," she said, as if repeating it from a textbook. "The first thing you do is avoid looking them in the eye. You also don't want to wave your hands, as that's something for them to bite. And don't turn and run away. It'll catch you and kill you."

"Very good," the instructor said.

"That's just how to escape a fight," Reyna said. "Not how to actually fight it."

The instructor turned to Reyna, a cold look on his face. "I'm sure Gwen was getting there," he said. "I don't tolerate interrupters. Gwen, continue please."

Gwen glared at Reyna, but she paused. "I would try to… punch the mouth and try to get the fangs out."

The instructor paused before sighing and looking around the group. "Anybody else?"

"A hellhound will bite whatever it can," Reyna mused. "Give it your forearm, and then roll onto your back. While rolling, wrap your legs around its neck, squeeze and twist. You'll either strangle it or break its neck."

"And get your arm bit in the process," Gwen pouted.

"Better than your neck," Reyna returned.

"Reyna!" the instructor snapped. "Respect other people's contribution!"

Reyna couldn't help but let her face fall. The instructor started partnering people up to put these theories into practise, with fake wooden dogs to fight. Reyna got to her feet but was almost knocked down again by Gwen's shoulder slamming into hers as she passed. "I really want to believe that was an accident," Reyna said.

"Then you must be delusional," Gwen retorted, smirking. "Show me up again, and it'll be more than balance I take."

-0-0-0-0-0-

At dinner, Reyna was already covered in bruises from training. Her limbs ached and she was tired. She stood in front of the bathroom mirror and borrowed a girl's concealer to cover the more noticeable bruises. This was what Hylla used to do whenever Reyna fell over. And again, if Reyna could put her mind back into her old life, then maybe she would find happiness at Camp.

She changed into a dress, one that looked like the white ones she used to wear at Circe's. She slipped Hylla's denim jacket on and kept her hair down. There were no war games that night, and no new recruits, so it was straight to the Mess Hall for the last meal of the day. Reyna grabbed a few pieces of chicken and looked around for somewhere to sit. For the third time that day, Gwen dragged her over to sit with them.

"Why do you still care?" Reyna asked.

"Because I don't need you disturbing the order here," she snapped. "You already tried once today, and I will not let that happen again."

"Disturbing the order?" Reyna exclaimed, laughing. "What, the order that you're Queen-Bee and everyone's first choice? And nobody is allowed to correct you or challenge you? That order?"

"Yes that order!" Gwen almost shouted. "I may be new in the Legion, but I've been working my ass off for the last two years to make sure everything was in order when I got here."

Reyna paused, smirking. "Look, I'm not here to take your reign-"

"Because it's just yours to take if you wanted it?!" Gwen demanded.

"Probably," Reyna shrugged. "Want a bet?"

"No, I want you to behave!" Gwen said. The whole table was watching them, but they hadn't drawn the attention of anybody else yet. Thank Gods. "I want you to stop trying to compete with me, and I want you to just let things happen the way they're supposed to."

Reyna sucked her teeth. She picked up her plate and got to her feet. "Fine," she mused. "Be that way."

"And where do you think you're going?" Gwen demanded.

Reyna turned to Jason's table, where he sat all alone. Like every meal. Because people were afraid of him and his Father. "To make a new order," she said. She walked over and put her plate down on the table, sitting down opposite him. He looked up at her with a shocked, maybe slightly scared expression on his face. She smiled but didn't say anything. Neither did he. They ate in complete silence, but not alone.

"Things were getting boring around here," Dakota mused.

Gwen huffed. "She better not keep making her own rules around here," Gwen said. Everybody knew that it was her job, and now, Reyna was the competition.

"I'm actually kind of hoping she will," Dakota replied, shrugging.

* * *

 **Author's Note: Okay, so more often than not I will just have one AN, but this is the first chapter, and I have a few warnings. Remember, this is all about development. Characters and relationships will change throughout the story.**

 **Also, I would like to note that in this story, Reyna is like, twelve. She just left her sister after running from some abusive pirates. Before that, she was forced to (SPOILER ALERT) kill her own father. She's not going to have a perfectly easy time adjusting to Camp Jupiter. In fact, she's going to have a super hard time, because I feel like that's realistic of a 12 year old, traumatised kid.**

 **Speaking of which, symbolic things to watch out for: Reyna's hair/how she treats her appearance, and Jason's table.**

 **So please review! Let me know what you think. In all honesty, I was kind of worried about publishing this story. I feel like people are going to be mad because not everything is exactly where it is in Heroes of Olympus. Just bare with me. Revieww! -Izzy x**


	2. Chapter 2

**Author's Note: Thank you for the supportive reviews I got last chapter! It really means a lot. Here's Chapter Two! The first three are from Reyna's POV, and the next three will be Jason's. After that... well I haven't thought that far ahead.** **There will be a quest at one point, as hinted at by the story's title. But developing Reyna and Jason's friendship and exploring Camp Jupiter is just as important so it won't be for a little while.**

 **In the last version of this story, I introduced two OC's that readers seemed to like. They were to further explore the theory that Bellona doesn't have many children. It was also to bring in an adult-figure. So they've been added to this story as well. Happy reading!-Izzy**

* * *

Chapter Two

Things didn't get better for Reyna. She didn't have high hopes that they would. Not only was Gwen always the one that was picked for everything, but Gwen became resentful to Reyna, which meant that everybody was resentful towards Reyna. After every activity in training, Reyna found herself getting muddy, getting bruised and even getting cut. She would walk to a meal looking like she just fought with a bear, while Gwen and her friends looked perfect.

Every day, Reyna tried something new with her hair. She put it into elaborate buns made out of little braids. She styles her curls to look like a crown. But every style that she remembered from Circe's was far too elaborate to do every morning, and too wrong for practical labour, which seemed to be the motto of Camp Jupiter.

One day in training was the worst. The group practised a charge attack on a group of wooden dummies. Although, Reyna never actually made it to the dummies as Gwen kept 'knocking into her' and pushing her to the ground.

"Look, we don't have to be friends," Reyna said one day, during a run around the track. "But you can at least leave me alone to train in pea-" She wasn't allowed to finish her sentence. Gwen pushed her to the ground and Reyna scraped her elbow as she fell.

"Green card, Gwen," the instructor called. Finally, he was doing something right. Even if it was in unnecessary sports references.

"Thank you!" Reyna called over, getting to her feet and brushing grass off herself.

"Sorry," Gwen called back, smirking. "I slipped."

Reyna grumbled, but they continued her work, and Reyna continued trying to reason with Gwen. "I'm sorry for showing you up the other day, with the hellhounds," she exclaimed over the noise of their swords clinking together in a battle. "But you totally keep sabotaging me-" Again, she was interrupted by Gwen slicing her sword down Reyna's arm, ripping her shirt.

"Gwen!" the instructor called. "I said no actual harm!"

"The swords heavier than expected," she excused.

"Orange card," he called. "And I'm running out of colours here!"

Reyna wiped the blood away but otherwise ignored the cut. "And I'm running out of patience. If that's how you want to play it," she growled, walking past Gwen and getting up in her face, "then fine by me."

Almost five minutes past before they started archery. Reyna wasn't bad at it, but Gwen was great. When they ran forward to collect fallen arrows, the girls ran into each other and knocked each other to the ground. There was a small fight before Reyna pinned her down.

"Is that enough, yet?" Reyna demanded, smirking at a bruise that was beginning to form on Gwen's arm. She got to her feet and Gwen followed.

"It's enough," Gwen said, "when I say it's enough."

"Everything good over here?" the instructor asked, walking over to them as a crowd formed. The girls glared at each other before Gwen cried out in fake pain and clutched at her leg. "Reyna, you're out of here!"

"I hope it's broken!" Reyna spat as two girls ran forward to help Gwen stand.

She was pretty grouchy during the lunch time that followed. She had made a point over the last week to always sit opposite Jason. People had watched nervously, and some had asked her not to, to leave Jason alone. But she waved them away. Jason never spoke to her, and often pretended she wasn't there. But he didn't kick her away or move. Reyna couldn't help but always wonder what the deal was with him.

She was late to that lunch time. She had gone back to the barracks to clean the mud off herself and tend to the cut on her arm. She was scrubbing her hands clean when she caught a glimpse of something that looked like blood on her thumb. When she looked back it was gone, but she could still feel it there. She scrubbed harder, relentlessly scraping away two layers of skin before drying her hands and heading to lunch.

At the table, there was already food in her place and she immediately thought Gwen had taken her place at Jason's table. Then she realised that the Tortilla Española was the same meal she had almost every lunch time. It had been the only meal Hylla could make back in Puerto Rico, and when their father had been… out of it, Hylla had always made it for Reyna.

The hair, the make-up, the omelet. It was all part of Reyna, trying to put her mind back to a place where she was happy.

Then Reyna realized that Jason had ordered it for her. "Thank you," she said, sitting down. He was looking up at her, a blank expression on his face. Those were the first two words either of them said to each other.

-0-0-0-0-0-

"Children of Bellona are kind of like a blessing," Dakota explained. He often came up to talk to Reyna, since they both shared a mutual disliking. Apparently, she was the only one at camp who didn't disagree about disliking Gwen. "Rare and always bearing good luck."

"Rare?" Reyna asked. They walked down the _via praetoria_ , with a couple things of coffee and a box of doughnuts. It was a Sunday morning and they had a few hours off from any duties, so Dakota was walking her into her first official trip to New Rome. "How rare is rare?"

Dakota shrugged, getting white powder on his upper lip as he bit into the doughnut in his hand. "Like, we only have three current living children of Bellona in recording," he answered. "Surprisingly, none of them are particularly old. It's rare for any demigod to live particularly long. Even rarer for children of Bellona and Mars."

"How come?" Reyna asked.

That day her hair was in a braided bun at the base of her neck, two little French Braids working into it from the front of her head. She wore a long-sleeved beige top and a white skirt. She wore skirts a lot in Puerto Rico, and dresses on Circe's island. She had a brown leather bag over one shoulder.

"They run off into war too easily," he replied, shrugging. "They're always on the front lines."

"Why wouldn't a child of a War God be on the front lines?" Reyna asked.

Dakota gestured to her vaguely. "Exactly," he said. He wore a camp t-shirt that matched his eyes, with skinny, light blue jeans. "Anyway, the two kids we have are living in New Rome at the moment."

"Do you know them?" Reyna asked.

He shook his head. "No, I asked one of the centurions to look into it," he replied. "After you were climbed. It was more out of curiosity than anything. Anyway, I have the address, I thought we would pay them a visit."

Reyna paused. She hadn't had siblings before. She had Hylla. But her relationship with Hylla had been kind of been based more on survival than liking of each other. Hylla had gone out of her way to protect Reyna from her father. They had built a new life for themselves among the maidens of Circe's Island. And then they had worked together to gain the respect of the pirates and then use that to escape them.

But Reyna and Hylla shared a mutual disliking of each other. They loved each other enough to save each other's lives. But Reyna couldn't help but wonder, if her and her sister's lives hadn't always been in jeopardy, would they even speak to each other at all?

"Who are they?" Reyna asked.

"One woman, Lucy, just turned twenty-one," Dakota said. "And some kid, Aiden, who found Camp Jupiter too young and is living with Lucy until he joins the Legion. I think he's like, 10 now, so only one or two years younger than you."

"Two," Reyna confirmed. They approached the edge of the city and Reyna took a step in before jumping back. She probably would've fallen to the ground if Dakota hadn't caught her. In front of her, a statue had popped into existence. A marble bust of a very angry guy with a big beard.

"Hand over your weapons," it growled, menacingly.

"It can talk," Reyna whispered to Dakota, confused.

"Of course I can talk!" it exclaimed. "I can also take your weapons."

There was a pause. "You don't have any arms," Reyna pointed out.

"And you have a pimple beginning to form on your forehead," the statue retorted. "Now that we've finished pointing out each other's flaws, hand over your weapons!" Reyna's hand shot up to her forehead as she turned to Dakota for an explanation.

"Reyna, this is Terminus, guard of the city," he introduced. "No weapons within the city limits; past the Pomerian line." Dakota turned back to Terminus and shrugged. "I don't have any." A boy around ten years old came jogging out of nowhere, holding a platter for them to put their weapons on.

"There's one in your back pocket," Terminus practically yelled at him. Dakota looked confused but pulled out a folded paper airplane. He handed it over to boy and then looked expectantly over at Reyna. She pulled out a gold dagger from her bag, which she had picked special from the armory a few days before. She also handed over a pocket knife, which she had used while running from the Wolf House.

"There," she grumbled. "Happy?"

"I will be when you hand over the weapon in the front pocket of your bag," Terminus said. Reyna scrunched up her eyebrows, pulling a small make-up bag from the front pocket. "Inside it," Terminus continued." Reyna held up a couple things, which Terminus kept shooting down. She held up a lip gloss and he exclaimed that it was lethal.

Reyna shook her head. "Weirdo," she muttered, handing the little tube over to the boy. Her and Dakota were then allowed to enter the city. "Can I ask, what did Gwen do to make you hate her?" Reyna asked at the walked along the cobblestones.

They were surrounded by buildings that looked like landmarks. White houses with marble pillars outside. The Senate House and the Chariot track weren't too far away from them, and rose above nearby buildings. They walked into the center of the city, where there was a fountain and little cafes with old people and young children, and married couples, college students. Someone could really build an entire life in this city.

Dakota chased away a pigeon as he spoke. "Gwen is basically everything I hate about people distilled into one 80 pound, label-tossing, arrogant, bullying package of girly evil," he explained.

"Well you're hardly better with the whole bullying thing," Reyna mused. "You did say you wished she died. How come you guys always sit on the same table then?"

He shrugged. "She's friends with my friends," Dakota said, as if theirs was a tragic situation. He led her through the square streets, reading an address off a piece of paper, and letting that be there guide. "This is it."

The house was basically the same as any other on the street. It had white marble pillars outside and a black railing. It was no bigger than two stories tall and had a red door outside with the number 36 on in in gold, just above a matching knocker. Dakota lead her up to the door and knocked twice. "You ready for this?" he asked.

She shrugged. "Do you have any siblings in Camp?" she asked.

He nodded. "Too many to know each of them personally," he mused. "I mean; I have a few close ones. My Dad's Bacchus, God of Wine, so he gets around a lot."

Reyna paused. "Do you ever meet your Godly parent?" she asked.

Before Dakota could answer a crash came from inside the house, followed by some creative curse words. There was a second before the door flung open. The woman behind it looked pretty young. She had light orange hair that was up in a very messy bun at the base of her neck, and she wore a blue tank top and jeans. She had a hard jaw and eyes that said: 'really? You want to mess with me? Try it. I dare you', but she also had a smile that seemed kind. She had a half-filled glass of red wine in one hand, but hid it when she saw the children at her door.

"Hi," she greeted, warily. "Sorry, you couldn't have caught me at a worse time."

"We could come back later," Reyna said, looking for an excuse to run. Dakota grabbed her wrist when she tried to turn away.

"I'm Dakota," he said. "Fifth Cohort." That made The woman eye him, uncertainly. "This is Reyna. Daughter of Bellona." Reyna paused as the woman studied her. She smiled awkwardly.

"Come on in," the woman said. "I'm Lucy. I guess I'm your big sister. You been claimed yet, or is it just a hunch?" She walked back into the house and Reyna followed her. Dakota came in as well, closing the front door behind them.

The hallway was narrow and stacked with papers, letters, bills, boxes, pieces of Lego and other toys, including a few video-games and DVDs. There were two doors leading off of the hallway, one to the left of the door that lead into a messy living room with over-stuffed couches and armchairs, cushions and a flat-screen T.V complete with about three or four gaming consoles. The second door was on the other end of the hall, parallel to the door and lead to the kitchen. They went through that door and Reyna looked around. The kitchen was pretty cute, with limestone worktops and a breakfast bar and a few appliances. Next to the kitchen, past the breakfast bar, was a dining room, but the table was covered too much in junk to actually use. Through the dining room was another entrance to the living room.

"So, Reyna," Lucy said, taking a seat on a barstool in the kitchen and putting the glass of wine to one side. "Tell me about yourself. What's the first thing I should know about my new little sister?"

Reyna paused. What was anyone supposed to say when they were asked that question? "Um, what would you like to know?"

"What do you have to tell me?"

Reyna cracked a smile. "Are you… trying to make this impossible?" she asked. Lucy laughed. Dakota and Reyna sat opposite the table, facing her. "I'm Puerto Rican," Reyna said, shrugging. "I'm 13 years old, in a relationship with caffeine, jelly bean obsession, dog person." Lucy started to laugh. "And I have a phobia of pirates. Your turn."

Lucy paused before picking up her glass of wine. "I'm a bad authority figure," she said, holding up the wine as if toasting the idea. "I'm American, 21. Full-time man hater. Supporting 11-year-old little brother. He's called Aiden, by the way. You'll like him." She started flicking through a house-keeping magazine on the counter.

"Man hater, huh?" Reyna asked. "You would like my sister, Hylla. My full-sister that is. Daughter of my Dad as well as Bellona."

"First rule of being in this family," Lucy said, holding her finger up. "No full/half siblings."

Reyna smirked. "That's a good rule," she said, without stating whether or not she was going to be fully in or fully out. Lucy was now flicking through the magazine at a two-page-per-second speed. "Are you reading that fast or trying to fan yourself?"

Lucy almost rolled her eyes. "I'm trying to find a good cake recipe," she answered. "It's Aiden's birthday and I suck at baking. And I'm tired of the same shop-bought caterpillar cake, which is the only one these shops sell without it being super expensive and special made. Unfortunately, all these are really hard."

Reyna paused and exchanged a quick look with Dakota, trying to thank him for making her meet Lucy. "I can bake," she said. "I can help, if you like?" Hylla had known how to make one dish is San Juan, and with their father being… well, their father, the girls usually had to cook for themselves. So one day, Reyna picked up a cook book and filed through, learning how to do it for herself.

"I'm going to like having you around," Lucy said, picking up her glass of red wine and refilling it, sitting behind the breakfast bar and watching Reyna. "I mean, you can bake, which is a very important talent. I've never been very good at... well, anything, but baking especially."

"What do you mean by 'having me around'?" Reyna asked, curiously.

"Us Bellona kids have got to stick together," she shrugged. "Aidan's out with some friends right now. Anyway, as far as I know there's only three of us. You, me and him. Oh, and your sister. Hylla, did you say her name was? Anyway, if you talk to your centurions then occasionally you'll both be able to stay around. And you can come around at any point during the day."

Reyna paused. "Hylla isn't here. We split up before I came to camp. She went to find some people called the Amazons, who she'd grown fascinated with. I got a dream about Lupa. I went to find camp."

Reyna shrugged. "For a while. There was also this spa we stayed at for a while. It's complicated. What about you? What do I need to know about my new big sister?"

"Well," Lucy thought for a second. "Last year I was a college student who went to a lot of parties, never went to class and couldn't keep a goldfish alive. Then Aidan needed a home so I dropped out and I'm currently unemployed and looking for work. I drink a lot of wine but am very good at handling my liquor."

"That's good to know," Reyna said, nodding.

"I left the legion about three or four years ago. I was eight when I joined up. I was Centurion of the Third for a while. What cohort did they put you in?"

"Fifth," Reyna said, shrugging. "Why does everyone hate the Fifth?"

"Oh, you been at a Legion gathering yet?" Dakota asked, chiming in for the first time. "You know when they raise that golden pole? Well, there used to be a golden eagle at the top that could shoot lightning or something. Some members of the Fifth lost it in the 80's. Everyone's been mad at the Fifth since. I don't really care. People make mistakes, and surprisingly, those people are not the good, kind people in the modern-day fifth."

"True," Lucy agreed.

"Everyone does seem so nice. Okay, I've got to get back to duties," Reyna said, checking her watch with a groan. "I'm sat on top of a watchtower for the rest of the day."

She was happy to have Lucy. She felt comfortable with her, more than in the Legion. She had a family in New Rome. Even if she didn't actually know them yet.

-0-0-0-0-0-

"Why are you sat here?" Jason asked her. Reyna noticed his scar for the first time, just by his lip. She was sat on his table again, during dinner that night. She had been looking down and fiddling with her fork, but was confused when Jason spoke. She hadn't been expecting him to speak.

"Because my food is here," she said, gesturing to her plate.

Jason almost cracked a smile, but he didn't. "Are you trying to get under Gwen's skin or something?" he asked, nodding to where Gwen sat. "Or do you want something from me?" He sounded mean and accusing.

"Don't talk about Gwen to me," Reyna scoffed, holding up her hand to stop him. "And I'm sat with you because… I don't know. You look lonely so I took pity on you." She smirked and he looked shocked, as if nobody ever had the nerve to say that to him.

"I'm not lonely," he said, blankly after a pause.

"Well maybe I am," she replied. "And I would rather sit here with you than with them." Now she nodded to Gwen's table. Jason just leaned back, letting the conversation drop. He picked at his ham sandwich and looked up every time Reyna moved. Reyna wondered if he was afraid she would leave.

"What's the deal with Gwen, anyway?" she asked. There was a long pause. Reyna thought Jason wasn't going to answer her. After at least three minutes, he did.

"She, um, came to camp 6 years ago," he said. "Daughter of Venus. Refused to join the Legion. It took 6 years of convincing her to. To be fair, she was pretty young some of that time. Six years of making herself the… stereotypical high school queen." There was another pause. "Why?" he asked. "Is she giving you trouble?"

There was a long pause. Reyna fiddled with her food before sighing. "She's always the one that everyone picks. For everything!" she exclaimed after a minute or two. "And she doesn't even try. Why do you ask? Are you friends with her?"

"Oh Gods, no," he said. "But I am friends with her boyfriend."

Reyna almost choked on her food. "You have a friend?!" she asked, sounding shocked.

Jason actually sniggered at that point. Maybe he was human after all. "You say that with such a discouraging amount of surprise," he said, on the verge of laughing.

Reyna instantly felt guilty. "No, I didn't mean it that way," she blurted, quickly. "No, I meant… well you eat alone, and people are known for running away from you. Everybody here is scared of you."

"And you're not?" he asked. This time he sounded surprised.

She shook her head. "No. I'm not." He still looked shocked about it, but after a minute or two, the smallest of smiles began to creep up on him. Kind of like she had.

* * *

 **Author's Note: Things I should be doing - not this. Things I am doing - this.**

 **Thank you for reading. Next chapter will start looking into Octavian's backstory. Please review and let me know what you think! -Izzy x**


	3. Chapter 3

**Author's Note: Not sure about this chapter, if I'm honest. This is the last one from Reyna's POV before we switch to Jason's for a few chapters. I'm just not sure if this one works.**

 **Thanks to all reviewers, you make my day. Wrath of Nyx - that had me laughing for five minutes omg. And just wait ;)**

 **I'm not good at fight scenes. They are the hardest thing to write in my opinion, and I'm working on improving it, but for the one in this chapter, there is nothing good. I also wanted to focus a little on Reyna's PTSD from what happened with her dad in San Juan.**

 **Oh, and we meet Octavian in this chapter. People seemed to like the direction I took him in the first adaptation of this story so I'm following the same storyline. Ish. Anyway, happy reading! -Izzy**

* * *

 **Chapter Three**

Reyna had still never worn a camp t-shirt. She didn't feel like a part of the camp. She wasn't a soldier in the Legion. Not yet, and she wondered if she would ever fit in. Her training class all hated her and often found excuses to be mean or sometimes violent. Her instructor wasn't completely oblivious, but he did seem to be pretty bias.

Her only friend was Dakota, and he never sat with her or really spoke to her. She rarely spoke to Jason, but when she did, he was always pretty nice. Anyway, when she felt more like a part of the camp, then she would wear the t-shirt. Until then, she was sticking with her own clothes. She had bought a few things from New Rome, and stolen a few things on the way over here.

That night she wore skinny jeans and a fairly thin black hoodie. The clothes had to be well-fitted, because she had to fit golden armor plates over herself. She pinned her hair up in a bun and slipped a short sword into its sheath at her waist. She tied up a thick pair of boots and went outside to the Legion gathering.

It was just as intimidating as the first time she saw it. She weaved herself through the crowds of kids, most of whom were all taller than her. She got lost twice, but a few Lares helped her find her place. She stood as the other kids did and waited.

No one new, just the same speeches and announcements. Raising of the eagle-less pole. Finally, they were excused. Everybody usually discarded most of their weaponry in the barracks, only keeping their favorite weapon for war games. They kept those through dinner.

Reyna, as per usual, sat with Jason. Although, this time, they weren't the only two. "Reyna, this is Octavian," Jason introduced, absent mindedly. "Told you I had a friend," he muttered. He was reading over a page of something as the boy, Octavian, leaned on the back of his chair, looking over his shoulder.

Octavian looked over at Reyna and smiled. "Hi," she smiled, kind of awkwardly.

"You're the brave girl who keeps forcing her company on Jason?" Octavian asked, grinning. "He speaks very lowly of you."

"I should hope so," she said. "Otherwise, forcing my company on him would feel a little boring." She reached across the table and shook Octavian's hand. "Reyna."

"Tavy," he introduced, which Reyna guessed was a nickname. He seemed pretty friendly.

"So, not to be intrusive, but why do you, as his friend, never sit at his table?" Reyna asked.

"Usually I eat dinner in New Rome with the family," Octavian answered, pushing himself off the back of Jason's chair and standing up straight. "Who, by the way, are very confused as to why a certain _someone_ never visits by the way."

Jason sighed very heavily. "I told them I was trying to build more of a life in the Legion," he answered. "That means eating with them."

"And you have done a very good job, sitting all by yourself every day," Octavian rolled his eyes. "Before you, Reyna." She smiled.

"It's better than eating with them," Jason mumbled.

"They're your family," Octavian reasoned.

"You guys are brothers?" Reyna asked, shocked.

"Technically," they both said, simultaneously. "I came to Camp when I was two," Jason said. "Octavian's family live in the city and they took me in. Not as their son. But Octavian became like a brother."

"You know they see you as a son," Octavian huffed. His voice quietened, as if trying to keep the conversation from Reyna. She tried to distract herself with her food, as to not eavesdrop. Maybe she should move somewhere else…

"I'm not talking about this right now," Jason said. "Tell your father I said 'thanks, but no thanks'." Octavian grumbled but he snatched the piece of paper from Jason's hands and stormed off. Jason turned to Reyna and half-smiled.

"What was all that about?" she asked.

"You're nosy, aren't you?" he commented.

She scoffed. "Fine then, I won't ask!"

There was a pause. "Octavian's Dad had an invitation for me to this thing that I don't want to go to," he mused. "Let's just eat in silence."

"As always," Reyna added.

"Why change tradition?" Jason asked.

So that's what they did. Once again, they ate in complete silence. After a while, the centurions started leading their cohorts onto the Field of Mars for War Games. Jason had long since split from her, and Reyna was walking around, looking for Dakota.

"So what exactly are the rules?" Reyna asked him when she found him. They stood together at the back of the group, waiting for the centurions to come up with some orders. Dakota was wearing full armor; which Reyna hadn't seen before.

"Basically," he mused, examining his spear, "the teams have to get over the big wall over there and get each other's flags. We're allowed to actually hurt people with these swords, but do try not to kill anyone." There was a pause and Reyna winced. She pulled herself together and hoped Dakota hadn't noticed. "We have more cohorts than them, so usually, we would have the upper hand. However, they like to use us to weaken the defenses at the wall, and not actually do anything of any worth."

"Oh," Reyna frowned. "That blows." There was a pause. "We're not actually going to do what we're told, are we?"

"Not a chance."

-0-0-0-0-0-

Reyna and Dakota were set up as a 'hidden squad'. Whenever the fifth was thrown at the wall, which was always, the centurions came up with the same tactics. One big group to charge to the wall, to distract the guards, and a few smaller groups to pretend to try and sneak in. Dakota and Reyna were one of those groups, and they knew they would get caught, forced to surrender and lose.

"At each end of the wall," Dakota explained, gesturing vaguely to the large, thick grey wall about 20 feet tall, separating the territories of the two teams, "is a watch tower, that the defense teams are allowed to use. We're supposed to try and sneak into those through a little door in them."

"What are we going to do instead?" Reyna asked.

"We wait it out," Dakota answered. They were jogging along to their appointed watch tower, sword ready and on alert. "As soon as the Fifth Cohort it down, the real fun begins, and the other cohorts start the fight at the wall. Then we sneak into the watch tower while the guards are actually distracted."

"Don't they have big crossbows up there, like around Camp Jupiter?" Reyna asked. "What if we use those to fight the other team, so ours can make it up and over the wall?"

"I had a better idea," Dakota mused, smiling at her. "There are two watch towers. One on either side of the wall. One has a door on our territory. The other has a door on their territory. If we go through our watch tower, work our way along the wall and come out the other side, we can make it through their territory and get the flag for ourselves."

"Won't we get caught on their territory?" Reyna asked.

"Not when they're all at the wall, brawling it out," Dakota answered. "So, you in? You willing to get victory from the fifth and prove our worth? Or are you out?"

Reyna smirked. "Duh, I'm in?" she grinned.

Dakota found them a fort to hide behind. They waited for the battle with the fifth to die down and watched soldiers get flown away via griffin. And then the actual fight began. The other cohorts ran at each other and met at the wall. Swords clashed, magic reigned. Everybody seemed to have individual powers that they found useful. It was almost fun to watch.

"Come on," Dakota whispered. He led her out from behind the fort and continued down the direction. They should have finished their tasks long before then, so really, it was just good that they were still in the game.

The watch towers were made from the same brick at the rest of the wall, but it was taller. They were thinner and smaller than the ones around Camp, and there was a small, wooden arch door near it. Reyna tried to open it but it wouldn't budge. "It's locked," Dakota observed, when he tried it. "We're going to have to pick the lock."

Reyna rolled her eyes. "Gee, Dakota, you have some valuable commentary." He just scoffed at her. He got on one knee and started picking at the lock with a paper clip. "So, how does a Son of Bacchus know how to pick locks? Needed to get into a few wine cabinets?"

He turned to her. "You know, you don't get half enough credit for your wit," he noticed. "And to answer your question… let's just say I had a life outside here that required a few skills." He was about to turn back when something caught his eye. "Reyna, defend me."

Reyna to where he was looking. One of the soldiers from the other team had spotted them. He was on their territory, but evidently decided to take them out before going towards their flag. He pulled out his sword and ran for Dakota. Reyna stood her ground, preparing to fight. He ran at her and she backed away. He then pushed her so she had nowhere to run.

Reyna was cornered. Her back hit the wall of the barrier and she pulled out her short sword. It was hard to find the eyes of her opponent through the dark of the night, and through his helmet, so all she could see was a dark, tall, very muscular figure approaching her with a very sharp weapon drawn and facing her.

He made the first move. His sword went for a slash across her torso. She managed to block it. Barely. She used her sword to push his away.

She aimed for a swipe across his breastplate, but his sword clashed with hers in a defence. He swung his sword for her neck. Reyna vaguely wondered if he was trying to decapitate her. She ducked.

The useful thing about sword were that they could also be a distraction. While using it to slash and stab at him, her leg reached out and kicked his knees. He fell. At first, Reyna thought that was a good thing. Then he sliced her leg, just above the armour on her thigh.

She gritted her teeth through the pain.

She blocked his next stabbing movement.

He attempted an Absetzen.

Reyna stopped this by moving her sword out of the way and ducking so he didn't hit her. When she ducked, a bright light hit her in the corner of her eye. Like a reflection of the sun off a car. There was a chink in his armour, just by his shoulder.

When she straightened up, he tried to knee her in the ribs. He succeeded. Out of breath, she just managed to block his next strike.

The edges of their swords clinked together and they struggled to get power. Reyna won. She pushed him harder, so he fell away from her.

She peeled her back from the wall and advanced. She made a few slash attacks, which he managed to block. When he jumped to his feet, Reyna caught a glimpse of the shining light again. The reflection of a light someone was shining on the chink in his armour.

When the light went, her sword had lowered, but his was raised. It was aimed at her torso and he was trying to back her into the wall again.

It worked. Only, he didn't stop. He kept advancing and Reyna realised that this guy was actually going to stab her.

She raised her sword in defence, but he swiped it away. By the time she raised it again, he was too close to block and Reyna did the only thing she could.

She stabbed him.

Right in the chink of his armour on his shoulder. She pushed him back before taking her sword out.

She had heard it. She had heard the tear of skin. It sounded familiar, although Reyna didn't remember hearing it before. She felt it as well. The pressure of the sword slicing his skin open and entering him. She hoped she would never feel that again.

"Oh my Gods," Reyna whispered as her opponent fell to the floor. Her mouth and eyes were wide and she could feel regret creeping up on her. "I'm so sorry," she breathed, kneeling next to him and checking to see if the wound was deep. It was. "I didn't mean to do that, I'm sorry!"

"Get a medic!" he shouted at her. Reyna nodded and ran as far as she could, waving about at the griffins flying high above them. One sailed down and landed next to her and she gestured towards her opponent. She stayed and watched them cart him away.

Reyna paused for a long while before finding a small spot near the wall. Dakota went on without her and Reyna stayed out of sight from any players or griffins or anyone. She didn't want to see anyone, or have anybody asking questions about why she was so upset by this. She just needed to hide.

-0-0-0-0-0-

When she was found, it was by the person who she least wanted to be caught by. "What the hell are you doing?" Gwen demanded, standing tall and looking down at Reyna, who had curled up. When Reyna looked up at Gwen, Gwen saw the tears down her cheeks and the way Reyna was shaking. Her face fell in… what was that? …compassion?

"What happened?" Gwen asked, kneeling down next to her. She didn't sound like she was trying to be kind.

There was a long pause as Reyna focused on controlling her breathing. "I need to leave Camp Jupiter," she told Gwen. "I'll sneak out tonight, after War Games." Her breathing started to get uneven again. "I gave up so much to come here. Because I thought it was what I wanted.

"Well, isn't it?" Gwen asked.

Reyna shook her head. "No. Because the things I want, never want me."

Gwen sighed. "Look, is this about in training? Because those kids are just doing what I tell them to. It's not a case that everyone dislikes you. Just me."

"That's very helpful, thank you."

Gwen rolled her eyes. "Well I don't know what you want me to say," she exclaimed. "I'm sorry? Because I'm not, Reyna. Battle is battle, no matter who it's between."

"Yeah, you don't know what to say," Reyna scoffed. "Because you're Little Miss Perfect. You fit in here so easily, and you know what you're doing."

"You're being ridiculous," Gwen told her.

"And insecure," Reyna added, "and stupid. But that doesn't change the fact that you're going to be everyone's first choice, and I'm always going to be the backup."

There was a long pause. Eventually Gwen just sat next to her. She wore armor and a helmet, which looked very out of place on her. She had a collections of knives strapped to her side and a bow on her back, but no arrows.

"I doubt I am what's upsetting you so much," Gwen said. "I think you're just using our rivalry as a scape goat to let your anger at something else out."

Reyna paused, fiddling with her own fingers. "Who let you be so smart?" she asked. Gwen took that opportunity to pull out a wet wipe and clean the mascara stains from Reyna's face. She carried wet wipes during War Games. That explained why her armor was so shiny.

"I like to consider myself a perfect combination of brains and beauty," Gwen answered. "So what's actually up?"

"Why do you care?" Reyna asked. "You hate me?"

Gwen shrugged. "I know when to put the hatred on a break," she answered, shrugging. "Look, Reyna. You're a twelve-year-old girl, who's been thrown into this new world only to be hated. My bad, but anyway. Whatever PTSD thing you have going on… you don't have to be okay all the time. I'm not going to kick you while you're down."

There was another long pause. "I don't need your pity," Reyna whispered. "I need to leave Camp."

"Well, first we have to finish War Games," Gwen said. She got to her feet and dragged Reyna up with her. "Come on. Explain what Dakota's plan was and we'll finish it together."

Dakota had been carried away by some medics. He had gone on without Reyna, and he had failed. Gwen and Reyna made their way through a small, narrow hallway in the wall toward the exit watch tower. Reyna explained the plan, and Gwen looked impressed. "It's good. But Dakota's still a douche."

Reyna then asked why Gwen was being nice to her. Gwen reminded her that they were not friends, and as soon as Reyna was feeling happier, Gwen would easily go back to screwing her over. They were enemies, and it would stay that way. "At least your honest," Reyna had said to that. Gwen just told her that she didn't needed Reyna to be all sad and broken. She needed a worthy competition.

They only encountered a couple enemies along the way, but the girls easily took them out. Reyna was quickly forgetting what happened earlier.

The girls made it out of the exit door. On the other side of the wall was the other half of the Field of Mars. The other teams Territory was almost identical to their own, but with more forts. They weaved in and out of them, hiding behind them when they needed to. It wasn't too far away they saw a tall tower. Like one of the watch towers, but completely separate from the wall.

"The flags in there," Gwen said. "Top floor. Loads of guards inside."

"How do we get the flag then?" Reyna asked.

"The building has no windows," Gwen mused. "They won't be able to see us climbing our way up from the outside." She pulled out two other daggers that were on her. She handed one to Reyna, who paired it with her own. "Hit the cement between the bricks," Gwen told her. "Good luck."

They moved over to the side of the tower. Gwen through a knife into the cement so hard it stuck. She used it to pull herself up and jammed the other dagger in above her head. Reyna tried to copy her movements. She managed to get herself off the floor, but it was probably one of the physically hardest things she'd ever done.

"So I saw you at dinner today," Gwen mused. "You and Jason were talking to someone else."

"That was Octavian," Reyna told her. "Jason's brother. He's pretty cool."

"I know," Gwen said. "He's my boyfriend." Reyna's face fell at Gwen's tone. Oh. Oh yeah. Jason said he was friends with Gwen's boyfriend. "You know," Gwen continued, "I don't appreciate the girls that I hate trying to get close to my boyfriend."

"I wasn't trying to get close with him," Reyna said. "I just met him, is all."

"Sure," Gwen mused. She stopped climbing and waited for Reyna to catch up, so they were on eye-level. "I told you we weren't friends. And I warned you that I had no problem stabbing you in the back when you felt better."

"Gwen, look-" she was interrupted by Gwen reaching over and pulling one of Reyna's knives out of the cement, throwing it out of Reyna's hand and to the floor.

"You look better," she mused.

"Gwen, what the _hell_ are you doing?!" Reyna demanded, hanging on by only one knife. They weren't massively far from the floor, but far enough so that the fall would cause some injuries.

"What did you expect?" Gwen asked. "For me to stay nice forever? I needed your help to get this far, but now the alliance is over. This is my first War Games. As soon as I win, I'll be the one to make the fifth great again. I will be the most popular kid at Camp."

"Is that all you care about?" Reyna demanded as Gwen reached over for the knife that she was clinging onto. "Popularity? We are at a war camp for half-god children! There are bigger fish to fry."

"You can't blame me for having a hobby," she exclaimed. "It's called ambition, Reyna. I have big plans for this Legion, and that includes winning this game all by myself. Sorry, honey." She pulled the dagger out and Reyna instinctively screamed as she fell to the ground. She fell unconscious.

-0-0-0-0-0-

That night she almost had a panic attack. The Fifth went to celebrate the win of the War Games in the city over night. Reyna was left alone in the barracks, trying to pack her stuff without bursting into tears. She was so lost. What was she doing there? Getting bullied by Gwen and her group to the point of complete loneliness? Trying to build a family with two people she had never met?

She didn't belong there. She should sneak out and head North. Find Hylla in Seattle and make a home with the Amazons. Sure, she would fight with Hylla 24/7, and sure, she would be trapped with her past. But at least she wouldn't be stuck with girls who hated each other enough to let them drop from a freaking tower.

Speaking of which, her emotions weren't the only thing that made her want to cry. Her back was covered in mud and her hair was a mess. She had bruises all along her limbs and she still had that cut in her leg. She had someone's blood smeared on her face that was mixing with mascara stains.

Gods, the only reason she wore mascara was to try and stay the same Reyna she had once been. But she wasn't. She couldn't be.

Stuck with her past. If she went to find Hylla, she would never be able to recover from what happened in San Juan. But she also couldn't do that in Camp Jupiter, where it was okay to stab someone. She shook at the memory, at the thought of the knife piercing that boy's skin… And how was she supposed to recover from everything the pirates did to her when she was with Hylla?

No, she had to build a new life. But not there. She had nowhere to go.

Her breathing began to get uneven, but she tried not to allow herself to panic. She had to be stronger than that.

So what if she stabbed someone that night, bringing up painful memories of her father? So what if she just got pushed off a tower for allowing herself to trust someone for longer than five seconds? So what if she was twelve and didn't know where she could go to feel safe? She should be 'stronger' than that. She began hyperventilating. She didn't cry, she just couldn't breathe. Oh Gods, she couldn't breathe.

The thing about Reyna, was that she didn't make a big deal out of big deals. She suppressed emotion and stayed 'okay'. She was completely conscious, and she didn't cry. She just stood there, struggling for breath for a minute or two. Soon after, she felt a warm cloth on her face and the stains being washed away.

She squinted, trying to determine a face. "Look at me, look at me," a male voice kept saying. "You're going to be okay, do you hear me?" Jason. She recognized the little scar on his lip.

"I can't be here," she choked. "I can't stay."

"Yes, you can!" he assured her.

"No, I can't!" she insisted. He smelled clean. And she was a complete wreck. "I tried," she told him. "I try _so hard_. And I can't..." She didn't know what she was saying by that point, she was just trying not to cry. She couldn't cry. She wouldn't.

"Look at me, look at me," he said, forcing her eyes to meet his. He took a few deep breaths, as if setting some sort of example. Reyna tried to match her breathing to his. "You fight this," he instructed her. "You're strong enough." She tried to shake her head but he stopped her. "I promise you," he told her, his face honest, "I _won't_ let anything happen to you."

Jason pulled her in to give her a surprisingly comforting hug. It was the first time they had touched. He was soft and warm and Reyna felt a sense of trust with him. But she didn't trust that sense. The last times she had trusted hadn't gone so well.

Jason cleaned her face off and Reyna got changed into some clean pajamas. She brushed through her hair and sat in her bed. Jason sat opposite her, constantly talking to her and trying to get her to stay calm.

"Do you ever feel like," she whispered, lying down in bed, "there's not a person in the world who loves you?"

Jason sighed. He wrapped her blanket over her and sat next to her. "Life can be a little rough sometimes," he shrugged.

She nodded. "I just wish life was different."

"Trust me," he said, "me too." He made a move to stand up but she grabbed his arm, stopping him.

"Please don't leave me alone," she whispered. She was half-asleep at this point and coming down from a near panic attack. But a plea was a plea, and Jason wasn't just going to leave her. So he sat down with her and talked to her until she fell asleep.

* * *

 **Author's Note: Again, I wasn't too sure about this. I kind of just wanted to show a more vulnerable side of Reyna, but I don't think it really flowed. That might just be my inner critique. Let me know what you guys think.** **-Izzy x**


	4. Chapter 4

**Author's Note: How many fanfictions can I update in one day? I wonder...**

 **Hello! This chapter kind of begins to look at that class system and businesses of New Rome, which was something I wanted to explore. As well as Jason's and Octavian's family, which is going to be a major theme. Thanks, by the way, to the reviewers who said this interested them. I created something similar in the last version of this story but I didn't get to explore it as much.**

 **Also, the guest reviewer who read this under the desk at school - I smiled like an idiot reading that review, so thanks for leaving that. Glad you liked it. But focus on your education! lmaoo**

 **There isn't MUCH Jeyna in this chapter, but the next chapter will be entirely Jeyna bonding, to make up for it.**

* * *

 **Chapter Four**

Jason kind of had no other choice. Octavian had kept asking him about it, over and over and over again, until Jason couldn't take it anymore. He found his way into New Rome and into the biggest, most expensive house there. It was inhabited by this one family, who everyone admired.

Charles Arlington was once Praetor of the Legion, and now, as an adult, he ran pretty much every company in New Rome. He was the richest business man the city had. His wife, Jane, was probably one of the nicest people New Rome had. On the outside, she looked kind of stuck up, but if you got to know her, she was the sweetest, most maternal figure ever.

They had one son, in his early teens. He took more after his mother than his father in the sense that he was kind to people. He was expected to take over the family business when he was older. They also had a daughter, who they often liked to hide. She was only 11, but she was already causing havoc and mayhem at important events.

Plus, the family had a foster case. The child of Jupiter who came to Rome stranded and alone when he was two. They took him in when he was too young to join the Legion, and raised him. When the father took him in, he had the idea of publicity. That the foster case would win him points with the public. But the mother, and the children, they loved Jason like one of their own.

He had only been visiting for a few minutes before realizing the mistake he made. As always, there was an argument rattling the household. Something about Octavian's little sister, Alison, screwing up a business deal for her father.

"There's never too much mayhem in this house," Jane was saying. She had high cheek bones and pursed lips, that always looked like she was smiling a little. She had straight blonde hair to her shoulders that was always up in a bun up the back of her head. She always wore skirts suits or smart day dresses and walked in heels. Jason liked having her as a foster mother, despite how cold she seemed. He knew she could be warm and maternal when she needed to.

"Gwen's going to be here in a minute," Octavian told them. Him, Jane and Jason were all sat around the breakfast island in the large house, listening to the argument in the other room. "We'll have to cease… that," he continued, gesturing to the raised voices.

Jane smiled. "Gwen's practically family," she mused. "She's close enough to be witness to us at our worst."

"Gods forbid," Jason said, feigning a gasp. Octavian sniggered, instantly getting the slander. "Our reputation will be ruined. Gwendolyn will scarper!" Jane rolled her eyes, understanding who Jason was mocking.

"Your father may care about the familial reputation," she said, sipping her coffee. "But he isn't _that_ bad."

"He isn't my father," Jason mumbled.

"Oh he's that bad," Octavian contradicted. "He's already planning mine and Gwen's wedding because he approves so much of her addition to this family. He won't risk her running away for anything."

"If Gwen's such a big part of this family, then why has she not yet bothered to learn my name?" Jason asked.

"Oh she knows your name," Jane huffed, as if Jason was just being silly.

"She just fears to speak it, Lord Voldemort," Octavian agreed. Jason laughed and Jane cracked a smile. "In case you come down at her with your lightning powers." Jason sighed. Everybody at camp was afraid of him for the powers inherited from his father. He always sat alone, always ran alone because everyone was afraid of him. Which is why they all claimed to be his friends. "You know, she once claimed you shouldn't be allowed within the city because you, yourself, was a weapon."

"You're kidding?" Jane asked, turning to him.

Octavian nodded. "I asked her about it and she said she was joking. But it's Gwen."

"Tavy," Jason said, slowly and softly, as if at an intervention. "You're dating a nutbag."

There was the sound of a doorbell. "Speaking of which," Octavian mused. He checked his watch. "Perfectly on time. Down to the second. Incredible." The arguing in the other room ceased and Octavian jogged out of the kitchen to answer the door.

There were lots of happy greetings. Octavian's father shook Gwen's hand and beamed down at her, as if proud. Alison threw her a fake smile and a one-armed hug on the way to her room. Jane hugged her quite stiffly and they did that thing where they kissed either cheek. Gwen didn't acknowledge Jason's existence. Octavian kissed her cheek and suggested they go out for a walk.

"Jason, why don't you go with them?" Jane suggested, kindly. "You look pale; you could use the fresh air." Jason tossed her a look that aid 'are you kidding me?' but Gwen feigned a smile and said that was a good idea. So Jason sighed and went with them.

The thing about that family is that it was all about reputation. Their father was the biggest business man in New Rome, buying and selling pieces of real estate until they were pretty damn rich. So their reputation really mattered. If they looked like a nice, smiling, happy family, the abler he was to make business deals. Jason didn't understand how that worked, it just did.

Octavian and Alison had to be portrayed as the sweet, grateful young children who contributed to New Rome's society. They were all too happy to have their father in their lives. Jason was the charity case. He was taken in by that family to prove that they were good people with good hearts. Of course, at the age of two he had been too young to join the Legion, so he was fostered.

While Octavian made a good brother and Jane was caring, Alison was barely sufferable and their father didn't care whether or not Jason was happy.

Gwen made a nice addition to the family. New Rome's it-girl, who had everyone wrapped around her pinkie finger? Everyone loved her, so by practically making her part of the family, they gained the respect of all of Gwen's minions.

The trio walked over the cobblestones of New Rome, stopping for the occasional horse trotting past or something. Octavian was hand-in-hand with his girlfriend, who was chatting away about something or another.

"Should we get some coffee or something?" Jason mused, stopping outside a little café. "I'll order." He took their preferences and went inside to buy some food. Gwen and Octavian sat outside on a little table, still chatting.

"I saw you made a new friend yesterday," Gwen was saying when Jason headed back out. He paused before waiting inside, listening to the conversation.

"I did?" Octavian asked.

"That new girl, Reyna," Gwen confirmed, smiling but looking deadly. "She's such a bitch. She's in my training class and she can't go five minutes without starting something." Octavian paused. He knew it was probably Gwen who was starting things. It was _Gwen_.

"Oh yeah?" Octavian asked. "I wasn't really making friends with her. She was just on Jason's table."

"Yeah, well she shouldn't have been," Gwen was saying. "Jason needs his space."

Jason sucked his teeth from inside the café. Gwen, as such a good addition to their family, was very important to their father. He was more concerned with preserving her relationship with Octavian, than Octavian was.

"Okay, well if you don't like her," Octavian said, "I won't talk to her again."

Jason grumbled, sitting down next to them again. Gwen did this thing where she completely ignored him. Maybe, like everyone else, she was afraid she would annoy him and he would zap her with his lightning powers. More likely, she was afraid he would pin her as an enemy and take her popularity from her. He probably could, as well.

"I have to go," he said, when the lunch was getting too insufferable. "I have a couple duties before lunch. And I don't want to be late to lunch." He looked very pointedly at Gwen. "I'm eating with a _friend_."

Gwen was trying with all her power not to scoff, but she did look like she'd just eaten something sour. Jason gave her a polite smile before getting to his feet and walking back to the city.

-0-0-0-0-0-

Reyna never actually made it to lunch. Jason sat there for her, waiting and waiting. People filed in and gossiped about how he was sat alone today. He fiddled with his curly fries and watched the door but she never came inside. He looked around the Mess Hall and did a head count of all the girls in Reyna's barrack. They were all there.

He got to his feet and slung his bag over his shoulder. It was kind of necessary when you lived his life to have a bag. He had training clothes and a spare shirt in case he got blood or mud on his. Plus, he had a few weapons in there, as well as a folder that Jane insisted he kept, filled with all the events they wanted him to attend for the family's reputation.

He walked out the Mess Hall, ignoring whispers trying to guess where he was going. The Fifth Cohort's Barracks were just around the corner from the Mess Hall, and he went over to the girl's room and knocked on the door. He opened it slightly and peered inside.

He wasn't actually allowed to go in, but he had last night when he heard Reyna panicking.

She was inside, sat in her bed with a few books open in front of her. She wore pyjamas and had wet hair. She got up when she noticed him there and faced him. "What are you doing here?" she asked.

He shrugged, closing the door behind them, the give them some privacy. "I was a bit worried about you," he admitted.

"Why?" she asked, crossing her arms. "I'm fine. I'm not weak, Jason. I can handle myself."

He nodded, as if that was obvious. "I know you can," he assured her. "But being strong doesn't mean we don't have the right to be in pain. Being strong doesn't mean you can't have the support of a friend."

"Since when were we friends?" she asked.

There was a short pause while Jason shrugged. "Since I looked lonely," he replied. "Since you felt lonely. Since you decided to sit by me. You're the only person at Camp, besides Octavian, who isn't afraid of me. And Tavy's like a brother, so I guess he doesn't count."

Reyna sighed, running a hand through her hair. "I'm not here to make friends," she said. "I'm here to train. Learn how not to die. Just because I had a moment last night doesn't mean that I'm a charity case in need of your sponsorship."

"Reyna-"

"No, you don't need to check in with me," she exclaimed. "You don't need to worry, or feel sorry for me. I'll go back to leaving you alone." She sighed, pursing her lips. "If you do the same for me."

There was another pause. Reyna turned back to her books, which Jason realised were all about Rome's history. Jason considered turning back to the door and walking out, leaving her alone. But he didn't.

"No," he told her.

She turned back to him, looking shocked and slightly exasperated. "What do you mean, 'no'?"

"I mean," he mused, "you're new here. You've been through a lot, and everyone here is just being horrible to you. It's okay to be in pain. And I'm not just going to abandon you, and leave you all alone when you need someone."

She gave him a look that would seem strong to anybody else. But Jason recognised the little twinkle of vulnerability in her eyes. The way her jaw was set a little too tight. "I'm fine," she said.

He shrugged. "You don't have to pretend with me."

Reyna paused. She let her posture drop and she looked down, as if considering her options in this situation. "Thank you," she said, eventually.

He smiled at her, nodding. "Come on, let's go to lunch."

-0-0-0-0-0-

Jason had never had a friend who was a girl. In fact, he'd never really had a friend at all. Octavian was great and everything, but they had kind of been forced together since they were two, so it was kind of a situation of 'be friends because you're stuck together'. Besides, Octavian was more like a brother than a friend.

Jason wanted to be Reyna's friend because she was cool.

"I don't know," Jason sighed. "I mean, she's lonely. She evidently gone through a lot and she needs a friend. Hell, I need a friend." He threw the football in his hands. Him and Octavian were standing in the back garden of their home in New Rome. It wasn't late, but it was dark at night.

"What are you talking about?" Octavian asked. "You have a friend." He caught the football as he talked and threw it back.

"You're my foster brother, you don't count," Jason said. Octavian huffed, unhappy with that answer.

"She seems nice," Octavian admitted. "I wonder why Gwen hates her."

"Is that even a question?" Jason asked. "Octavian, it's Gwen! She hates Reyna because Reyna's not afraid of her. And because Reyna's trying to make her own rules on the social ladder." The continued throwing the ball back and forth, occasionally moving around. "Why is Gwen so set on the idea that I eat alone every day?"

"I thought you didn't mind that?" Octavian asked.

"I don't," Jason shrugged. "It's peaceful and it's better than sitting with people who are afraid of me."

Octavian sighed. "Gwen has this… ideal world picture in her head," he explained. "She's trying to make her life one of those old classic movies. I can't tell you how many times I've watched _Breakfast at Tiffany's_ this week. And New Rome already has its own class system and luxuries, so I guess we're not incredibly far off."

"True," Jason shrugged. Their family was one of the upper-class in New Rome. It wasn't a Godly situation when it came to extended relatives. Octavian's family had settled in New Rome about a century ago, and they had cousins and relatives, brothers and sisters in law, grandparents. Their family was like a collage of all the different Gods.

"I asked her why she wanted to watch movies she's already seen," Octavian continued. "She said that she likes knowing how things are going to turn out. Which is the same reason she's been planning how many kids we're going to have since we were seven."

Jason laughed. "No way," he said.

Octavian shrugged. "She did," he said. "I mean, she let it drop after a few years, but it still happened. Anyway, you have enough power in this community to rip her dream world away from her. And she's afraid you'll use it."

"Maybe if she was nice," he shrugged, "I wouldn't."

Octavian's face fell. "You're not planning anything, are you?" he demanded.

"No, of course not," Jason rolled his eyes. "I'm just making a point."

There was a pause where they just threw the ball around for a bit. They had just finished a 'family' meal inside. Octavian's Dad had gone back to work, Alison had probably gone off upstairs to her room, or snuck out, and their mother was probably sitting down with a book by the fire. Octavian and Jason had gone outside to throw a ball around and talk about the recent events of their lives.

Jason had grown up with nights like that one. They were the nights that weren't that bad. The ones where he resented his foster father less. Those were the good nights.

"I'm not speaking on behalf of Reyna," Jason added, which made Octavian's face fall. "Somehow I doubt she's just going to let Gwen walk all over her like that. Just… tell Gwen to watch her back."

* * *

 **Author's Note: As always, thank you so much for reading. The city, as everything, will be developed as the story progresses, so stay tuned. Please let me know what you think before you leave. -Izzy**


	5. Chapter 5

**Author's Note: Okay, I know I said this chapter was ENTIRELY Jeyna, but there is a little Jason/Octavian at the end where they talk a little more about their family. Thanks for all the reviews they really make my day! Credit for the sister talk goes to shutuppercy. If you don't know who that is... are you sure you're a Jeyna fan?**

 **KeyboardisMightierThanthePen: Yeah, you got me there. I do need a beta. Or I just need to stop being lazy and edit my work... Either is good. If anyone wants to beta, let me know.**

 **Anyway, enjoy!**

* * *

 **Chapter Five**

It was almost impossible for two legionnaires to have their days off line up. Whenever Jason had a duty, it seemed to be Reyna's day off. Whenever Reyna had a duty, it seemed to be Jason's day off. So, on one of her days off, he got someone to cover for him. Like every day, Reyna sat opposite him on his table in the Mess Hall.

They had started conversing as they sat. She would ask him for advice about the Legion, and he would tell her more about business in New Rome. Sometimes they just ate in silence, but not often.

"What are you doing today?" Jason asked her that one morning.

"Literally nothing," she sighed. "You've got duties. Dakota's training all day. I thrive on activity but unfortunately, I'll probably just be sat alone reading all day."

"Dakota?" Jason asked. He poked at his omelet with his fork as Reyna spoke.

"He's a friend," she said. "I mean, I think he's only my friend because I don't get along with Gwen and he is on the verge of starting an Anti-Gwen campaign. And he's kind of a douche. But he's been pretty nice to me."

Jason paused. "Is he that kid who's always drinking Kool-Aid?" Jason asked. Reyna nodded. "Okay, well I've actually got a few people to fill in for me today, so I have the day off. And I have an idea."

Reyna raised an eyebrow. "Oh yeah?"

He nodded, smiling. "I'm going to show you my favorite part of Camp Jupiter."

-0-0-0-0-0-

A temple. That's what Reyna was expecting. Some sort of building on Temple Hill where Jason could go to be with his father, or pay his respects, or something like that. Or a training class. That's what Reyna thought she was signing up for when she agreed to go with him.

She was not expecting having to scramble through a hedge behind a building in the city.

"Are we even allowed back here?" she asked. On the other side of the hedge was a small stretch of land, cloaked by some trees so it was darker than the day was. Jason continued walking.

"Of course we are," he nodded, assuring. "People usually don't because… well, it's a long walk up a steep hill. But if I was in a position of power, I would have the hedge cut down, and access to this place easier."

"What place?" Reyna asked, picking a leaf out of her hair.

"My favorite place," Jason replied. Reyna cocked her head at him, almost smirking. Was he seriously being so secretive? Was it just to be annoying, or did he genuinely want this place to be a surprise? "It's worth it, I swear."

"It better be," she grumbled, following him. "I gave up a quiet day of reading for a long walk up a steep hill. If this isn't worth it, the murder charges will be."

Jason just laughed.

They broke out of the little alcove of trees and the atmosphere got lighter. Hills seemed to rise on either side of them as they walked on the grass, giving the feeling of being in a sort of tunnel. They kept walking along, mostly in silence. Although Reyna occasionally asked him how long they had to go and if they were there yet.

"You know," Jason mused, "when we go back, I think I'll have to find this Dakota. I have something very important I need to say to him."

Reyna furrowed her eyebrows together, confused. "Wait, what do you need to say?"

She could tell Jason was smiling, despite the fact that he was in front of her and his back was to her. "Hey, sorry I killed your friend Reyna," he answered. "But she was just so annoying."

Reyna scoffed and threw a small pile of leaves at his back. They were in the middle of The Fall, so they were surrounded by orange leave and dying trees. It was a pretty sight, with green hills and orange trees. There was the sound of running water somewhere, and Reyna doubted it was the aqueduct. She probably would have enjoyed it if her legs weren't beginning to ache.

"Shouldn't we be leaving a trail of M&M's or something?" she asked, swinging her arms.

Jason turned to her, confused. "Why would we throw perfectly good M&M's on the ground?" he asked her.

"So we can find our way back?" she asked, as if the answer was obvious. Hylla taught her to always leave a trail whenever she went exploring somewhere. M&M's were the best because they were colorful and hard to miss.

"Have you ever actually done that before?" Jason asked her. Reyna nodded. "And nothing's come along and eaten them?" he asked. Reyna paused. Well…

"Okay, so the strategy isn't fool-proof," she admitted, begrudgingly. She heard Jason snigger, but she elected to ignore it. There was a pause before Reyna let out a long, audible sigh. "Gods, this is taking forever! My legs are tired."

"Are you always this full of complaints?" Jason asked. He didn't even sound nearly out of breath! With the long walk and the warm sun, Reyna was just about ready to take a nap. Although, she did take sip some nectar when she started to get a headache. Jason just looked at the water bottle in her hand, filled with the clear gold liquid. "Where did you even get that?" he asked.

"I borrowed it," she said, innocently. "I've been really stressed lately, and I get headaches when I'm stressed."

"I thought it was sad," Jason said, recalling one conversation they had at their food table once.

"I get sad about being stressed," Reyna said, defensively. "Anyway, the city doesn't sell normal pain-killers, Gods know why. At least not to minors. I mean, paracetamol's 12+! I don't know _what_ their problem is." A confused expression came over her face. "Maybe it's seen as a weapon? Although I have no idea how paracetamol could be seen as a weapon. Although, one time in San Juan, when I was like, eight, this one group of kids added paracetamol to poisonous sandwiches to feed to this bald eagle that we found-"

"Why have you been stressed lately?" Jason asked, desperate to cut her off from her rambling. He had never seen her ramble before. "Gwen?"

Reyna shrugged. "I don't know. Maybe because I'm twelve and in this big new place with a lot of rules and everybody seems to be trying to hurt me. Who wouldn't be stressed, you know?" She said it sarcastically but Jason picked up on the hint of uncertainty in her voice.

"Okay, you're in a rough place," Jason allowed. "Been there, trust me. Being in a place like this put you on edge. Makes you a lot more emotional than usual. Considering how some kids handle it, you're doing very well."

"Makes me more emotional, huh?" Reyna asked, casually. "So you're saying that now, I'm basically an _extreme_ lonely, stuck up, control freak, instead of a regular one?"

Jason cracked a smile, but he didn't laugh. She was funny, but she could probably add 'insecure' to that list as well. "Well, I wasn't going to say it," he said, gesturing vaguely to her, "like _that_. But…"

Reyna rolled her eyes. It was another five minutes before they spoke again. "This has actually been a very therapeutic walk," she mused. "Nice day, warm sunshine, cool breeze, lots of time to think." There was a pause before she groaned. "Who am I kidding? When is it over?"

Jason sniggered. "We're here," he told her. She let out a relieved sigh as they reached the top of the hill. She looked around them and her mouth opened a little. Trees created a canopy over their head and grapevines were everywhere. Bees were buzzing all around them, and there was a fountain in the middle with a statue of some God. From on top of the hill, Reyna could see the entire valley. New Rome, Temple Hill, Camp Jupiter, all of it. She could even see little fauns dotting the _via praetoria_.

"This is," Reyna said, looking around with an expression of awe on her face. "Worth it."

Jason smirked then. He sat down on the edge of the fountain and pulled a paper bag out from his bag. Reyna sat down next to him as he showed her the brownies he had bought. "Here," he said, offering them to her.

Reyna paused before grabbing the bag. "Usually when I'm complaining," she told him, "if you give me a bag of chocolate brownies, I'll shut up. You know, for future reference, when we're climbing up massive hills."

Jason nodded. "I'll keep that in mind," he said. Reyna happily bit into the brownie pieces, protesting angrily when he tried to take one, which just made him smile. "Odd how a few brownies can change your mood just like that," he mused.

"That," she nodded, "and this beautiful garden." It was true that the brownies were excellent. The came from everybody's favorite bakery in New Rome, and the brownies were gooey in the middle and melted in your mouth.

She was smiling now, which he hadn't actually seen before. Usually she was sad, or she pushed him away. Or angry. He had never really seen her smile before. He decided that he liked it. She held up one brownie as if making a chocolate toast. "To good gardens and great brownies," she smirked.

Jason paused. He had seen that smile very rarely on others. It was a sentimental smile, one that he'd seen demigods wear when eating ambrosia or nectar. A smile that meant that taste meant something. "What?" Jason asked, officially interested. "Remind you of home, or something?"

Reyna scoffed to herself. "Please," she almost laughed. "My sister had one dish that kept us alive. And even that was mediocre. She couldn't cook to save her life." She smiled at the thought of it, but Jason's face fell.

"You have a sister?" he asked, sitting up and studying her smile. Her eyes lit up at the mention and Jason wondered what the story with them was. "Like, outside of New Rome?" he added.

Reyna nodded. "Yeah, her name's Hylla," she answered, still smiling. When she saw Jason's face, however, he expression changed. Stiffer, more closed off. "What is it?" she asked.

Jason chewed the scar on his lip, contemplating what he was about to say. "Do you… have you ever…" he sighed, trailing off. He hadn't spoken to anybody about that. Not even Octavian. Was he really going to open up about the one personal subject he had left, to a girl he just met? He looked at Reyna, who was studying him with an expression that could be mistaken for worry.

"Do I ever...?" she mused, waiting for him to continue.

"If you hadn't seen your sister for like, a decade," Jason said after a pause, choosing his words very carefully, "do you think you would still remember her?"

Reyna nodded, a mouth full of brownie. Jason's eyes widened hopefully. She seemed sure, but she didn't speak until she finished eating. "Of course I'd remember my sister in a decade," she said, shrugging. "You can't just forget a sibling!"

"No, I didn't mean a decade from today," Jason said, realizing his mistake. "I meant… if you hadn't seen your sister since you were like, two, do you think you'd still remember her?"

"Oh," Reyna paused. "I don't know. I mean, baby memories aren't very good." Reyna thought to herself, squinting as she tried to come up with an answer. "My sister smells like jasmine," she said after about thirty seconds. "She found one jasmine perfume when she was a little kid, and she kept getting new ones, so she's smelt like jasmine for as long as I can remember."

Jason didn't reply for a second. "Okay," he mused, not getting what Reyna was saying."

Reyna actually rolled her eyes. "It's been there for as long as I can remember," she repeated. "So I guess, if I had gone the last ten years without seeing Hylla, I would still remember how she smelt of Jasmine." She took another bite of brownie, looking pleased with her answer. "Why are you asking me this, anyway?"

Jason didn't make eye contact with Reyna as he spoke. "Mine smelt like leather," he replied, fiddling with his thumbs. "Or at least, I think they did. And there was something spiky."

"You have a sister?" Reyna asked. "Wait, you're a son of Jupiter. Isn't that rare enough as it is?"

Jason just shrugged. "I don't know, I wouldn't have seen them for a decade," he mused, thinking back to the earliest memory he had. "I can't even tell if it was a sister or… it's just a hunch."

Reyna nodded, thoughtfully. Then she held her chin up and spoke optimistically. "Well, as your best friend, I officially promise that we will find her. Them. It. Whatever."

Jason raised an eyebrow as a smile began to creep up on him. "So you're my _best_ friend, now are you?" he asked, accusingly. "And you and I, who just met, are now a team?" He meant it to be some form of criticism, some form of doubt. But Reyna just nodded, determinedly, as if it was a challenge.

"I'm you're only friend," she replied. "And Octavian doesn't count because you're foster brothers." She took another bite of brownie, before smirking proudly. "And as for being a team – you can bet we are."

Jason smiled. "Right. And I don't get a say in the matter, do I?"

Reyna rolled her eyes. "Well sorry Mr. Private-Life," she mused, sarcastically. "I should probably just leave you all alone to your secretive life of secrets. And mystery."

"My what?" Jason asked, his eyes lighting up slightly in amusement. "My secretive life of secrets?" Reyna nodded, standing by the lame title. "I get it," he said. "You think I'm too closed off. Is that it?"

"Well I wasn't going to say it," she mocked, remembering what he had said earlier, "like _that_. But…"

-0-0-0-0-0-

Jason wasn't sure whether or not he preferred staying in the barracks, or in the city.

On the one hand, the Arlington house in the city let him have his own bedroom. He didn't constantly have to feel people's nervous stares or hear their whispers. Lightning powers, he could hurt them, etc. Nor did he have to deal with their extreme politeness while in the city. Plus, Octavian was usually staying in the city, so Jason would have some pretty decent company.

However, in the city, he was no more than a charity case for the richest family there. At least, in Camp Jupiter, Jason was a kid who was trying to build a future for himself in the Legion. At least he was working for something instead of having everything passed down for him.

That's why, a lot of the time, Octavian would join him in the barracks, to mix the best of each situation. Of course, being an Arlington, he was in the First Cohort, but Jason always snuck him into the Fifth's barracks. His bunkmates were too afraid of him to tell on them. Although, the news he had, wasn't so good.

"…The Grandfather's annual reunion," he was saying, which made Jason tune into the conversation. He had been thinking about Reyna, and if she was lonely in the barracks. "Are you coming this year or not?"

"Not," Jason said, instantly.

The Grandfather. Head of the family. He was also a praetor, for almost longer than any other. He led the Legion out of a great battle, and was therefore so respected among the city that he had more influence over anyone. He wasn't an Arlington, he was a Caldwell, but each family had different last names. The Caldwells were like a cousin family.

They had been in New Rome for almost a century, which was just about when the Legion moved to America, after the deflation of the British Empire. So all the last names fitted to all these old, powerful families in the city had an old-fashioned English surname to them.

Octavian rolled his eyes. "Look, I agree with you about my father," he said. "But don't take it out on The Grandfather." Jason wasn't entirely sure why they always said 'the' before referring to the old man. Their entire family did it.

Jason grumbled under his breath. "I'll think about it."

* * *

 **Author's Note: I know I said the next chapter would also be Jason POV but it kinda just became Gwen's. So some character building for Gwen next chapter. Please review to let me know what you think! All the love -Izzy**


	6. Chapter 6

**Author's Note: So, this chapter is from Gwen's POV because I wanted to look a little further at her ambitions and insecurities. But there was a POV change to Reyna near the end. It'll continue from Jason's next chapter, where I'll introduce the quest. So, this chapter will be the last... 'social' themed chapter, so to speak. The last fully-social anyway.**

 **a-really-angry-sorceress: I PM'd you. Let me know if you got it though, because the PM's never work for me.**

 **Thanks to ShutUpPercy who beta'd this for me!**

* * *

 **Chapter Six**

Gwen didn't like surprises or changes. She liked knowing how her day was going to go every time she woke up. She hated not knowing how things were going to turn out. Routines. Yes, she liked routines.

Every morning she would get up, get dressed, watch the other girls dressing like she did. Do her makeup, do her hair. Blow a kiss to herself in the mirror and then go and get breakfast. In the Mess Hall, she'd have one girl hand her a black coffee with two sugars, and another girl hand her a yogurt with skinless almonds. She had a couple of minions who were trying to gain a little bit of her popularity by hanging around with her. She used them as her personal assistants.

Then she would go to training. Lead a few routines and then barely break a sweat practising her fight moves. At exactly half past noon, she would meet Octavian for lunch in the city. That was her favourite routine. It wasn't until she'd heard some of the girl's whisper about her hot boyfriend that she realised they were dates. She smiled at the thought.

Yes, Octavian aided her popularity scale. He was rich, he was handsome and he was well-known and well-acquainted. But they had been together since they seven. He put up with all of her temper tantrums, and control freakiness and scheming. He was supportive and kind. And she really did love him.

Then, after some more training, or duties, or whatever, she would eat dinner with her friends, excel in War Games and go to bed.

Every day was a win.

Demigods or not, magical or not, they were still teenagers. They were still high school. Just as resentful, but this time with access to blades.

Except from that particular, unenjoyable day. Everything went wrong!

She got out of bed and hardly any girls were in the barracks. She thought she was running late, but she wasn't. She got dressed in a white t-shirt, tucked into a light pink skirt with a bird design on it. She had a shiny gold belt around her waist and her hair (that was strawberry blonde. Not ginger. Contrary to popular belief) was looking perfect in its ponytail. Looking around, there wasn't a single girl who was trying to match her outfit. Instead of blowing a kiss to herself, she stomped her foot angrily.

Breakfast was no better! No girl came running up to her with coffee or yogurt. She made it all the way to her table without her breakfast. "Okay, what is going on?" she demanded, leaning in to her friends. A small group of people who she could tolerate. "Where are my minions?" Dakota made some sniggering sound and Gwen snapped at him. "Are you sabotaging me?!" she demanded.

He held up his hands in a surrender. "I would never," he said, shrugging innocently.

Gwen grumbled as one of her minions ran up to her. "So sorry I'm late," she replied, looking giggly and bright. She handed Gwen a coffee that was cold, and a yogurt. "I didn't get the chance to skin the almonds. So sorry."

"These are peanuts!" Gwen noticed, taking her food. The girl shrugged innocently before running off. "What?!" Gwen burst out. Why wasn't that girl more afraid of social destruction?!

"You know you live in your own personal bubble, right?" Dakota asked, biting into a piece of toast. "You care so much about popularity. The only people who think the same way as you are the two or three minions, who are only a part of this because they miss the high school queen lives they lived on the outside. I guess you have an influence, but no actual power of the rest of us, who are all just trying to learn how to fight monsters."

Gwen paused before smiling slightly. "Well this is just my personality, Dakota," she said. "I like being in charge and on top. I won't rest until my life is the Audrey Hepburn movie I want it to be." A few people around the table laughed.

"You do you, Gwen," one of the praised. She smirked before getting to her feet and leaving for training.

She walked onto the training grounds every day, usually followed by a few girls, asking if they could do anything for her. That day she was alone. And it was soon that she realised why. Reyna was sat on the grass with all of her minions, and they all appeared to be laughing. "You have got to be kidding me," Gwen grumbled under her breath. She walked up to the group, and they looked up at her. All afraid except Reyna. "What is going on here?!"

Reyna looked around the faces of the girls in the group before standing up to face Gwen. "We were just talking about Valerie's shirt," Reyna said, smiling innocently. "Doesn't it perfectly compliment her eyes?"

Gwen paused, studying Reyna before turning to one of her minions. "Actually I think it's hideous," she said, looking at the fluorescent blue shirt. "You can see it from space."

Reyna smirked and the girls looked awkward. "That's not Valerie," Reyna said. "That's Katie, and I think her shirt is a statement." She was smiling almost in a friendly manner, but her eyes were looking deadly.

"It doesn't matter," Gwen shrugged it off. "Zoey, why was my coffee late today?! And why did I have peanuts instead of almonds?" She looked past Reyna at a different minion, the one who had bought her breakfast.

"Ooh, that's my fault," Reyna chimed in, playing on a look of guilt. "I had Zoey do me a huge, huge, huge favour. She was getting me coffee, and I guess she was running late. I'm sorry, Gwen. My bad!"

Gwen narrowed her eyes as she studied Reyna. What the hell was she doing? Trying to steal Gwen's role? How did she even get Gwen's minions to oblige? Gwen grabbed Reyna's wrist and led her away from the group, dropping her voice to talk to her privately. "What do you think you're doing?" she demanded through her teeth.

Reyna rolled her eyes as if Gwen was being dramatic. "It's called revenge," Reyna replied, shrugging innocently. "You see, I really cared about fitting in here, and building a life for myself here. And you tried to destroy that. And you care about your reputation, and being popular. So, you know what? I think I'm going to try and destroy that. An eye for an eye."

Gwen felt her jaw drop in surprise. "What?!" she demanded. If it didn't surprise her enough that little Reyna was rising from the ashes to except the challenge, then it surprised her that she was so honest about it.

"If it's war you want," Reyna mused, "then it's war you'll get."

Gwen paused before shaking her head and composing herself. "You will lose," Gwen said. "You think you can climb this high on the social ladder? Well there's a long way to fall. I've been here for much longer, Reyna."

"Consider this the end of your reign," Reyna replied. "Your manipulative, back-stabbing reign."

"This Legion needs a queen," Gwen said. "Not some newbie, war-obsessed trash."

"Okay, first of all," Reyna said, "it takes one to know one. And secondly: that's what praetors are for."

Gwen huffed, fuming. "The praetors do the business part," she replied. "I keep everybody socially loyal. It's win-win. And it means that the praetors have to trust me. As a centurion… on quests…" she trailed off and Reyna's face fell.

"That's what all of this is about?" Reyna asked. "All this need for power. You just want the praetors to trust you enough to give you a quest? Why?" Gwen realised the look that must have been all over her face. She shook it off and squared up to Reyna.

"How did you even get them to oblige?" she demanded.

"It's a game of confidence," Reyna replied, simply. "Then rules. And kindness. Trust me, I've had to earn the respect of a group of stubborn bitches before. Do you think this was my first time?"

"Fine," Gwen said, after a long, audible sigh. "Challenge me. Go ahead. But if you want to see the world from my eyes, if you want to live my life… you have to decide whether or not you think it's worth it."

-0-0-0-0-0-

She was five minutes late to her lunch with Octavian. He had just come back from his own training course and was in a little bakery, ordering two hot chocolates along with a box of doughnuts.

In New Rome, you could eat as unhealthily as you wanted, because you were guaranteed to work it off. Gwen always kept herself just a little chubbier than all the other girls. She wanted to prove a point to the world about beauty standards. She could be a little chubby and look good in dresses and bikinis, and be fit and active, and be stupidly pretty.

Plus, it was to prove a point to herself… she shook herself before she could finish that line of thought.

"Hey," she said, instantly pulling Octavian into a hug. He hugged her back, almost confused. After the day she had, she was just glad their lunch arrangements hadn't changed.

"Hey, what's up?" he asked. Somehow Octavian could always know something was wrong.

Gwen grumbled under her breath as they moved to sit on the outside metal table with the pretty designs. They sat there every day, as tradition. It was their spot. "That girl, Reyna," Gwen said, "the one your brother likes so much?"

"What did she do now?" he asked. Gwen knew he wanted to roll his eyes. This was just another one of Gwen's temper tantrums that he'd had to sit through. Gwen loved him. She really did. But there was also that part of her that wondered if he was just with her to please his family.

"She stole all my friends," Gwen shrugged, pretending as though it was a passing comment. Really, she wanted to make it out worse than it was, in hopes that Octavian would take her side. "Yeah," she nodded, pouting a little at the look on Octavian's face. "Like I guessed, she's a bitch. Just as pretentious, and manipulative, and _shallow_ as I am."

"You're not shallow," Octavian said instantly.

"Yeah I am," she replied, pursing her lips as she nodded. "And stupid. Clearly I'm only part of this relationship because you have a lot of power in the city." Octavian's face fell when he realised what was happening. "At least… that's what your family thinks, isn't it?"

He sighed. "My family loves you-"

"Jason doesn't," Gwen snapped. "He hasn't made one attempt to even get to know me!" She huffed, biting into one of the doughnuts, almost aggressively. Usually, she would just nibble on one. You would never catch her binge eating… not anymore. "You know, he'd probably the one who convinced Reyna to get revenge. I mean, she was scared before. Jason probably gave her some sort of pep-talk to convince her to take all my friends."

Octavian paused before sighing. "Okay, Gwen. They're not your real friends. If they were, Reyna wouldn't have been able to steal them."

Gwen's eyebrows shot up as she scoffed. "Oh, so you're taking her side?"

"I'm not taking sides," Octavian said. "I'm just saying-"

"You should be taking sides," she said. "Mine. I'm your girlfriend, and she's some girl who knows your brother." She finished her doughnut and moved on to the second. "For the love of Venus, I can't believe this is happening!"

"Nothing's happening!" Octavian insisted. "Gwen, don't get ridiculous." He sounded vaguely pleading and Gwen's face fell.

" _Don't_ get ridiculous?" she asked. "Octavian, that doesn't sound like me at all." Octavian cracked a smile and Gwen bought the conversation back around to the argument. "I need you on my side."

"You got me," he told her. "I promise." She began to smile. "I'm just trying to see it from Reyna's point of view!" Her smile fell. That's just the way things were. She told Octavian something, and he instantly began trying to see it from somebody else's point of view. Never hers. She got to her feet, somewhat angrily and Octavian jumped up to face her. "Gwen," he said, stopping her from walking away. "Gwen, don't be mad at me."

She paused, sighing. His father would get mad at him if he broke up with Gwen. Was that the only reason they were still together. "I love you, Octavian," she mused, reaching up to swipe a stray strand of hair from his eyes. "Maybe a little too much."

"I love you, too," he said, shrugging it off. A passing comment. Not a declaration of affection.

Gwen paused before stifling a sigh. She leaned up to kiss him quickly on the cheek. "I have to get back to training," she said, starting off back down the street.

-0-0-0-0-0-

It wasn't until the middle of the night that Gwen spoke to Reyna again. She was coming out of the bathroom in the barracks. Reyna was still awake, at about 3 in the morning, a book on her lap and a flashlight in hand. A blanket was draped lazily over her legs. She looked up when she heard the door close behind Gwen.

"I didn't see you go in there," she whispered, careful not to wake the other girls. Her brow creased in confusion. "How long have you been in there?"

"My, my, what a rude question," Gwen said, sitting herself down in the bunk opposite the room. She noticed Reyna's slight headshake as she turned to flashlight onto her. Gwen blinked out the light, grumbling.

"You look pale," Reyna observed.

"Yeah, and you look like you could carry shopping in those bags under your eyes," Gwen replied, shrugging innocently. "You know, since we're picking out each other's flaws. You're stupid, and you always say the wrong thing-"

"Okay, sorry," Reyna huffed. "I was just wondering if you were sick or something."

"Well I'm not!" Gwen replied instantly, snapping. "So mind your own business." Reyna just narrowed her eyes, suspiciously. After a minute, she turned back to her book. "Doing more research on the history of Rome?" She had noticed Reyna doing some brushing up on her facts.

"I'm reading _The Da Vinci Code_ ," Reyna replied.

"So, yeah?"

Reyna nodded. "I don't get it."

"It's _The Da Vinci Code_ ," Gwen said, as if that was an obvious answer to whatever Reyna's enquiry was. "You're not meant to get it."

Reyna paused, finishing the line she was reading. "It talks about a war between Christianity and Paganism during ancient Rome," she said, thoughtfully. "But I thought the ancient Romans all believed in Jupiter and Bellona, and their own Gods."

"That would be the Paganism side of the war," Gwen said. "I don't know what that words means to people around the world today. But back then, it would have meant someone who believed in more than one God."

"Oh," Reyna said. She reached over for a book mark as Gwen continued talking.

"Can we stop the small talk?" she asked. "I did you a favour, by sharing my knowledge. Now can you stop trying to ruin my life?"

"So you can go back to ruining mine?" Reyna asked. She closed the book and slid it into a shelf under her bedside table. "I'm not going to let you walk all over me. I'm not going to play the victim." She shook her head slightly, as if trying to clear the thoughts of all times she played the victim. Or of all the times she fought. "That's not who I am," she decided.

"No, you're just a shallow bully," Gwen declared. "You're just as bad as I am. Maybe even worse."

Reyna's expression was stone cold. "It's hard for me to show kindness to people that hate me," she said, crossing her arms. "I'm not that evolved." She got to her feet, turning off the flashlight. The room wasn't pitch black, but too dark to see anything clearly. She walked past Gwen's bunk, heading towards the bathroom. "I'm not like you," Reyna added. "You manipulated me. Pushed me around. Used me. And I may be a lot of things, but I am not shallow."

* * *

In the bathroom, Reyna turned straight to the mirror. She looked the same as she did every day since she got to camp. Curly hair with some sort of attempted style. Make-up, the same way Hylla did it at Circe's. A floral shirt and a necklace. Circe's island was great, and she was happy there, building a life for herself with her sister and her friends. But they entire time she had been told the same things.

Put your makeup on, keep your hair neat, run the extra mile. So they'll like you.

She had thought the women on the island had feminist ideals, but now she was beginning to rethink the meaning of the word.

She reached up to fiddle with the necklace she wore. Some cheap, beaded thing that one of the girls said looked good on her. She huffed, pinging beads off the wall as she ripped it from her neck. She grabbed a makeup wipe that somebody had left there, and cleaned off as much makeup as she could in that second. Who cared if it was what Hylla would do? Reyna was going to belong to herself. Make her own ideals.

She had bought a purple t-shirt from the other room, 'borrowed' from one of the girls. She slipped it on and looked in the mirror. The colour looked bad on her, and the logo looked foreign. But who cared? Maybe one day, people wouldn't be able to imagine her without it. She slipped a jacket on over it, in hopes of making it look more natural.

She played around with her hair for a while. She would need a style that was practical. She tried a ponytail, but Hylla always wore ponytails, so she took it out. And buns were annoying, no matter where they were on her head. She was contemplating her next move when he fingers started to move themselves, braiding her hair over each shoulder, in two fairly long plaits. Okay, that worked. It was easy, practical, and reminded her of braiding hair at Circe's.

She began to smile as she looked at herself in the mirror. She wasn't going to be the Reyna her old life hated. She still had the chance to build a life for herself in New Rome. She had chosen this, and she could create something out of it. She could be someone new.

* * *

 **Author's Note: Hours to write, seconds to review! -Izzy**


	7. Chapter 7

**Author's Note: My beta only edited some of this for me, because she hadn't gotten back to me yet with the rest of the edits, but I was so desperate to update SOMETHING since I haven't updated anything in forever, so I just published it without the green light. Sorry if there are some mistakes. So much exams and revision and school work I'm dying over here!**

 **Okay, so with this chapter I wanted to introduce the quest. I also wanted to let Jason and Reyna have a fluffy, happy moment. They're a little giddy in this and just.. laughing and happy, because I wanted them to laugh and be happy for a little bit before things go south.**

 **Thanks to ShutUpPercy who beta'd this for me!**

* * *

 **Chapter Seven**

Reyna took Jason to see her siblings in New Rome. They were still developing their relationships with each other, so Reyna was careful not to refer to them as family. Her new brother, Aidan, seemed really cool. He played video games – the ones that were allowed in New Rome – with Jason. They were only a year apart, so they made quite good friends.

Reyna's new sister, Lucy, seemed to like Jason much less. Reyna explained it was because she hated all men. "Bad experiences," Lucy shrugged. "Lack of trust. Sue me." After a while she pulled Jason aside and asked if him and Reyna were dating. Jason just reminded her that he was thirteen and Reyna was the first real friend he had in a while. Forever, actually. Lucy seemed to dislike him less after that.

While Reyna clearly liked Lucy, cared for her a lot, they weren't sisters. Not yet, anyway. Reyna didn't seem to feel the same way about Lucy, as she did about the sister she told Jason about. Maybe she felt as if she was cheating. Lucy didn't seem to notice this. She acting kind and lovingly around Reyna; always wearing a smile and cracking jokes at her expense. Reyna, whilst returning her smiles, moved more stiffly around Lucy.

Aidan was a kind of different matter. They weren't massively close yet, but Jason watched as Reyna and Aidan behaved like siblings, teased each other like siblings did. They may not love each other yet, but they acted like it.

Aidan excused himself after a while. As a kid jock, he had a lot of sports games to go to. He ran off and Jason suggested that he left as well. He had a senate meeting that he'd been invited to. Legionnaires rarely got invited to those. The only exceptions were him, as the son of Jupiter, and Gwen, as the most influential person over the camp.

Reyna hugged him before he left, before turning back to the tub of ice cream she was sharing with Lucy. It was only a ten, maybe fifteen-minute walk from Lucy's place to the Senate House, in the centre of the city. The most important buildings were towards the centre, including the most expensive homes. The poorer homes were towards the outside of the city.

It was modelled off the Curia Julia, the Senate House from ancient Rome. It was a large, square shaped building with a triangular roof and three windows on one side. Below the windows was a porch with red tiles and white marble pillars. The porch stretched further than the main building, and a small tower with only one window rose up a little while away. It wasn't particularly large or grand, but it was traditional and meaningful to the people of Rome.

Jason walked in and was instantly grabbed by the arm. Some woman in a white toga was pulling him to one side of the room. "Can I help you?" he asked, confused and anxious. Not a single person in that camp had ever dragged him before.

"Sorry," she said as they stopped by a row of pegs. "You're late. We're getting urgent."

"What's going on?" he asked. The woman pulled a white sheet – no, toga – off of the peg and started draping it over him, clasping something gold on his shoulder. He'd worn a toga once before, during a very formal event of Octavian's father. Usually, they were for centurions and praetors only.

"They'll explain when we're in there," the woman said, rushing him into the meeting room. He tried to sit in his usual seat, one near the back, but she nudged him down to a different one, a seat at the front, where the centurions sat. And it was for the first cohort.

Jason was still confused throughout the entire meeting as they talked about the pleas the people made to bring phones into the city. After about half an hour, one of the praetors, Aaron, changed the subject.

"I'm sure you have all made yourself aware that our wonderful centurions, Jenna and Byron, have resigned their places to attend college in New Rome," he said. "Which means we have two positions to fill. One in the Fifth, and one in the First. After a vote, the Senate has landed upon a surprisingly easy choice. Jason Grace, son of Jupiter."

There was some clapping from the other senate members. Jason paused in his seat, feeling shocked. One of the praetors gestured for him to come over and get a medal or something. Well it only made sense. He was the one at camp who everyone feared. The most powerful demigod there. Not to sound vain of course. It was more of a curse than anything else.

He walked up to collect the medal, trying to avoid eye contact from anyone. He must have been the youngest centurion in… well… maybe forever. He wondered if they were just electing him out of fear, or if they actually thought he would make a good leader. He stopped in his tracks when he noticed the medal they wanted to give him had the logo of the First Cohort. "This is the wrong one," he pointed out.

"No, this is the right one," Aaron said. The Senate House fell silent as they all watched him.

"I'm not in the First Cohort, sir," Jason said, feeling very small in front of so many powerful people. "I'm in the Fifth." He remembered the first day as a part of the camp. He had been living in the city for years, and his foster father had already arranged a placement for him in the First Cohort. However, when he arrived, he had stood in front of the Senate Hall, like he was now, and told them he wanted to join the Fifth.

"We have come to the conclusion," Aaron said, slowly and patronisingly, as if afraid of upsetting Jason, but still laying down his power, "that now you are of a higher rank, that the First Cohort is more suited to your capabilities than the Fifth and we would like to transfer you."

Jason paused. He looked up at Aaron and held his hands behind his back as a sign of respect. "I'm afraid I'll have to decline your offer," he said, trying to sound confident. "I've already made a home for myself, even if it is small. I've been excepted, and I don't want you leave that."

He had just made a friend. Jason had made his first friend, his first real friend, ever. And if he moved to the First, he'd be leaving Reyna, and he'd have to start all over again.

Aaron sighed. "Jason we understand your ambition, we admire it," he said. "But we do believe it's time for you to leave the Fifth Cohort. Your dreams of making it the best are all for naught. But your determination could really benefit you in the First."

There were some awkward coughs coming from the place everyone in the Fifth sat. "Aaron doesn't mean that the Fifth is any less than the First," the second praetor chimed in, trying to cover Aaron's tracks before it was too late. But everyone knew that he meant it. "All we mean is that someone with your talents, abilities, title and possibility, would be better suited for a cohort more like the First."

Jason nodded. "I understand what you mean," he said. "The people in the First have more opportunities because they are the cohort that is favoured. And the people of the Fifth don't have any opportunities because you have taken them away." There were shocked faces littering the meeting, and Jason just held his head up proud. "I'm not going to give up on the Fifth. And if the Legion was as honourable as it was said to be, they wouldn't either."

There was a pause, as Aaron decided what to say. After a minute, he replaced the First Cohort medal in his hand with one of the Fifth's, and announced Jason as Centurion of the Fifth Cohort. He went to go and sit by his cohort and the praetors announced that they would need more time to decide who should be the centurion for the First.

Then they moved on to the bigger issue.

"We are all aware of the journey between here and the Wolf House," The second praetor, Maya, said. "With little training, and a head full of fear, we can all relate to how difficult it is." She looked around the room, the crowd of people who had all gone through the same experience, and dared one of them to disagree with her. "Sometimes people fail."

"I think we should stop being so kind about it," Aaron intervened. "Lupa's latest recruit took a detour to Chicago, which is swarming with Venti. Now, the storm spirits have been acting strange lately. They're more intelligent than some monsters, but now we think they're conspiring, or working for a greater force. They kidnapped the demigod, and is keeping him hostage."

"Who cares?" One of the centurions from the fourth, called out. Kira, daughter of Mars. "He took the detour. Maybe it's his own fault he got captured."

"The is Rome," Maya replied, glaring at Kira angrily. "We are a community. Initiated or not, that demigod is one of us, and we don't leave one of us behind."

"We're organizing a quest," Aaron said. "Three demigods to travel to Chicago for a rescue mission. Unfortunately, that's all the details we can provide you with. To lead the quest, we've already chosen."

Everybody in that room leaned forward eagerly. A quest was the chance to prove yourself, to gain brownie points with the Legion, to move to a higher rank. A chance to be respected, and celebrated. But for Jason, a quest meant so much more. He'd been in New Rome since he was two. He wanted to get to the real world and see how mortals lived. Figure out what a car was and buy one. Maybe. He wanted to… explore.

But he wasn't worried about not being assigned the quest. Especially after Maya started talking. "Someone who's long overdue a quest," she said. "And as it's a storm-spirit problem, we know who'd be able to lead most efficiently. Jason Grace."

He nodded at her, excepting the quest and trying to maintain a professional face. "You have twelve hours to pick who to take with you, to pack your stuff, and to leave New Rome. Good luck."

-0-0-0-0-0-

Jason immediately went to find Octavian. He spotted him on a training grounds, completely demolishing some kid with a spear. Jason smiled with pride as Octavian spotted him. He let the kid scramble away and made his way over to Jason. "What's up?" He asked.

"Do you got a minute?" Jason asked. He'd taken off the toga and the medal, but still wore jeans and a plaid shirt. Octavian wore the camp t-shirt and a pair of jogging trousers for working out in. His hair was dishevelled and beads of sweat decorated his forehead.

"Octavian!" Yelled a voice from behind him. The instructor was looking angrily over at the pair of boys as they spoke.

Octavian sighed. "Can't," he said, apologetically. "I have to teach a newbie about bows and arrows before kicking his _podex_ for getting it wrong." He looked back at the training field and held a finger up to his instructor, telling him to wait.

"So then quit," Jason huffed. Octavian was from one of the most powerful families in New Rome. He could probably do that. "Let's go get lunch."

Octavian snickered. "If only," he sighed, wistfully. "I get off in an hour anyway, so I'll meet you for lunch in New Rome? Café Della at one?"

Jason rolled his eyes, grumbling. "I want to talk to you now!"

Octavian huffed as his instructor yelled at him again. "Five minutes!" He shouted back. "What is it, Jason?"

"I'm Centurion," Jason exclaimed, his grumpy expression turning into excitement in under a second. "And do you want to go on a quest with me?" He watched as Octavian's face turned from bored and disgruntled to happy.

"You're Centurion?!" He repeated, disregarding the rest of what Jason had said. "Congratulations! Which Cohort?" He high fived Jason with a grin as he spoke. "I mean, as the son of Jupiter, they probably wanted you in the First, right?"

"They did but I told them no," Jason replied. "It was the Fifth or nothing. Anyway, the quest is to Chicago. Some Venti kidnapped a demigod on his way to camp and we got to go save him. The storm spirits are like, organizing themselves or something. Anyway, you in?"

Octavian paused before nodding. "I don't even know why I'm pretending to think about this," he laughed. "Of course! Ooh, can we take Gwen?" Jason groaned but Octavian continued. "She's always wanted a quest, and this will be the perfect opportunity for you to get to know her."

"Actually," Jason sighed, "since this is my quest, what about Reyna?"

Octavian's face fell. "Reyna?" He asked, as though he misheard. "Look, I'm glad you are friends with her and whatever. But Gwen hates her. As far as I know, she's taking everything Gwen likes away from her and-"

"Yeah, because Gwen started it," Jason huffed. "Look, Reyna's just fending for herself."

"She's not as strong as you think she is," Octavian said.

"Yeah, she is," Jason said, defensively. "Look, she may have her insecurities and she may feel lost or out of place sometimes. But no matter what her flaws are, at the end of the day, you're going to want that girl on your side."

Octavian paused, chewing on his lip. "It's your quest," he sighed. "I just think we should leave Reyna behind."

"Octavian," Jason said, leaning forward with confidence. He spoke as if what he was about to say was the most important thing he'd said all day. "Absolutely not."

-0-0-0-0-0-

After that, he told Octavian when and where to meet him to leave, before heading back to New Rome. Lucy told him Reyna had left, and he spent the next half hour wandering around and looking for her. Eventually his legs were tired and he was hungry and he was about to give up and go get lunch when she found him.

"Hey, wait up!" He heard her call. He turned around to see her jog up to him with a grin on her face. She had changed lately. She had started wearing the camp t-shirt more often and she had her hair in two plaits instead of changing the style every day. Plus, she kept smiling. Her eyes were generally brighter and so was the atmosphere around her. Jason wondered what had changed from the lonely, insecure version of herself he'd first met.

"Reyna," he greeted, smiling. "Hey, I've been needing to talk to you." He stopped walking so she could catch up with him, slowing her jog as she did. "What are you doing right now?"

"Well, I'm starving," she announced, leading him towards a café just down the road. "Lunch?"

The Café Della Pace, was a replica of the one in Rome. One of the most popular cafes there, in fact. It was a small building made of red bricks with a brown double door. There were several round tables with umbrellas outside, and people usually preferred to sit there. It added to the atmosphere, with the birds and the plants. The wall of the café was covered with green moss and tendrils, outlining the door and windows. The building was on a street corner, so it had two facades.

They decided to sit inside, as it was less crowded and it was kind of chilly outside. Jason ordered a small, deep pan pizza with pepperoni. He was starving before, but for some reason, he could only really pick at it. He wanted to tell Reyna all about the quest, but she had also become very chatty over the last week or two.

"Sorry that I'm stuffing my face, by the way," she said, speaking around a face full of Macaroni and Cheese. "But Lucy, is a terribly chef. Like, awful. And she refuses to get take out or buy something ready-made as she needs to practise. I think Aidan and I need to stage an intervention before his birthday and she tries to make a cake. When's your birthday, by the way?"

"July," he told her, glad to have a moment that he could speak. "Reyna, I-"

"I love July," she interrupted, matter-of-factly. "It's a really good month."

"I have some news," Jason said quickly, before she could go into a miniature rant about how awesome July was.

"Oh my Gods," she said, a little regretfully. "Look at me, I'm not even giving you a chance to speak! I'm sorry, but when I get happy I get chatty! And I'm just really excited about where my life is at the moment." She paused to take a breath. "Anyway, what's your news?"

Jason couldn't help himself from laughing, which was something he rarely did. He let his head land in his hand as he grinned. "Sorry," he laughed. "You're just funny when you're excited." He looked back up at her and smiled. "And that grin… I didn't think I'd ever see that."

He was glad Reyna could laugh and smile around him, and talk freely. He'd grown a sense of protectiveness about her, and didn't want her to feel as lonely as she had, or be unsure about where she belonged. He was glad she was happy.

"Speak for yourself," she said, pointing a fork at him. "Look at us. Smiling like idiots. That's personal growth, that is." Jason continued laughing for a minute. "Anyway, what's your news?"

He kept smiling as he told her. "I'm Centurion," he told her.

Reyna's face fell in shock. "Seriously?!" She exclaimed. "Congratulations! You really deserve it though, because you know, you're really great. And you would make such a good leader!" Jason laughed at her reaction and she raised her glass of orange juice. "We should make a toast! To you."

Jason smiled as he clinked his own glass against hers. "There's more," he continued.

"Oh Gods," Reyna sighed. "Please don't tell me this is one of those good news/bad news situations. Because I'm in a really good mood and I don't want you to ruin that."

"No, it's more good news," he told her. "Some kid was on his way to Camp Jupiter when he got kidnapped by some monsters in Chicago, who seem to be conspiring against us."

"Jason, that isn't good news."

"No, the good part is that I get to go and save him," Jason continued. "I get a quest. I get to visit the real world, and I want you to come with me."

Reyna beamed. "Me? Seriously?"

"Yeah, you, me and Octavian," he told her. "You're one of my only friends, remember?"

"Yeah, why are you such a good friend to me?" She asked, shovelling more pasta into her mouth.

Jason shrugged, thinking about it. "I don't know," he answered, simply. "I guess you're just… the first good thing that's happened to me in a long time."

She brightened even further. "Vice Versa," she replied. "And I'd love to go with you."

* * *

 **Author's Note: As I haven't updated in too long, I've been on review-withdrawal. Please let me know what you think! -Izzy**


	8. Chapter 8

**Author's Note: It's been so long omg! Sorry guys, but we've just had GCSE exams that's been stressing me out, and I'm writing so many stories and there's been so many drama going on... anyway, sorry.**

 **In response to many concerns: No, I have not stopped writing this story. I'm just bad at updating at reasonable times.**

 **AzureMoonlight: I'VE BEEN GETTING WORRIED, I HAVEN'T HEARD FROM YOU IN SO LONG! They're all about 12/13 here, and thanks for pointing out the error. MISSED YOU SO MUCH OMG**

 **OH and to the anon who left me hate about it on tumblr: Leave now please, this story is not for you.**

 **Thanks to ShutUpPercy who beta'd this for me!**

* * *

 **Chapter Eight**

Octavian stood in his childhood bedroom, winding a long thing of rope around his hand before dumping it in the backpack he was taking. It barely fit around the fold up tent and pairs of extra clothes. Jason had to take the thin sleeping bags and collection of tinned food, and everything else was in Reyna's bag.

Their parents refused to let them leave New Rome without everything they could need on a quest. No, it was not particularly happy that Reyna was going with them. And neither was Gwen. He grumbled slightly to himself as he finished packing and zipped up the bag. He heard a voice from the bottom of the stairs call out his name and he went downstairs to greet Jason. His scowl deepened when he saw Reyna in the living room, shaking hands with his grandfather.

The head of the family was probably the most powerful influence in New Rome and one of Octavian's favourite and least favourite people. He was smiling grandly at Reyna, who returned the look as she went to go and stand by Jason.

"I have to say boys, I'm impressed by your choice of partnership on this quest," Grandfather said, in a deep, proud voice. "In fact, I'm incredibly chuffed that the two of you are going. And that Jason was asked to lead!" He patted Jason on the shoulder as he grinned, and not once did his eyes flicker over Octavian. "Reyna! You will join us for our family reunion this year?"

Reyna looked around the faces of the rest of the family before Jane, Octavian's mother, put her hands on each of Reyna's shoulders and smiled at Grandfather. "We'd love to bring her," she said. "Reyna's made a lovely friend for Jason, and cheered this household up with her presence!"

"Thanks, Jane." Reyna grinned. Of course they were on first name terms already. Jane was always like that. "I would love to."

"Excellent!" Grandfather exclaimed. Then he looked at Octavian and Jason and put a hand on each of their shoulders. "I have a feeling one of my boys is going to make me very proud through this quest."

One.

One of his boys.

Not both of his boys. Only one. Octavian seemed to be the only person who heard that tiny detail and it made him uncomfortable. No matter what he did, that 'one' would always be Jason. The son of Jupiter, the new Centurion, the bright shining star of New Rome. It would always be him.

As soon as his family allowed them to leave, Jason flung his arm around Reyna's shoulders and led her out of the door. Octavian followed, waving goodbye to his family and heading out, trying to convince himself that it was nice of Grandfather to come and see them off.

* * *

"How much longer is this going to take?" Reyna mused, grumbling slightly. She leaned against the wall of the tunnel. Technically, they'd left camp for their quest twenty minutes ago. They were held up by Gwen, who was on guard duty outside the doorway. It was kind of cute, in a sickening way. Octavian had his forehead leant against Gwen's, with their arms around each other, as the mumbled promises to each other.

Dakota, who was also on guard duty, kept throwing Reyna and Jason looks that said 'Will it ever end?' Reyna just shrugged back apologetically. Gwen wouldn't forget to shoot her nasty looks whenever she got caught.

"Tavy!" Jason called over. Octavian kissed Gwen one last time before jogging over to meet Reyna and Jason. "Finally!"

"You're not a boyfriend, Jason," Octavian huffed, annoyed. "You don't know what it's like."

"I know it makes me want to barf."

The two boys kept bickering all the way to the train station. Reyna tried to pay for the tickets but the guy kept giving her weird looks. Octavian tried, and he succeeded. Reyna had suspicions why, but she didn't need to talk about that right now. They dumped their bags onto the floor on the platform and sat down next to them.

Jason and Octavian went through their bags to make sure they had everything. Flashlight, rope, two changes of clothes, sleeping bags, tent, collection of tinned food, bottled water, Nectar and Ambrosia and a first aid kit. Their train tickets had cost all the money they had, but that wouldn't matter really. They had enough stuff to get there without needing money, and then getting back was a matter for another day. Then Octavian started doodling something on a notebook he bought.

They had one cell phone, just in case of emergencies. Reyna was currently on it, laughing at something on the screen. After a few minutes, Octavian snatched it from her. "Hey!" She exclaimed, annoyed.

"We only have one charger and so much credit," he huffed, going to shut it before he noticed what was on the screen. "You're already texting Dakota?"

"He's my friend!" Octavian turned to Jason, and raised an eyebrow, holding his pencil still over the paper for just a minute. Jason seemed intent on looking anywhere but Octavian. After a minute, he had nowhere else to look, and turned to Octavian, before shrugging at the judgemental look. "Okay, can you like, include me, please?" Reyna asked. "I know your girlfriend hates him and everything, but she hates me as well."

Octavian rolled his eyes as he turned back to Reyna. "Why do you think they hate each other so much?" Octavian asked. "Because they're so much alike." He turned back to Jason and nudged his arm. "I can't believe you're okay with them being friends."

"Okay, first of all, Jason has no right to be _okay_ with any of my friends," Reyna said. Jason pointed wildly to her, as if that explained everything. "And secondly, I thought you said you didn't know him?" With that, she turned to Jason, accusingly, and he dropped his hands.

"I don't," he replied. "Well… I mean, I know _of_ him." She raised an eyebrow and crossed her arms, waiting for an explanation. "People talk!" He shrugged, defensively. "Him and Gwen always sit together because their group of friends is the popular crowd. Yes, even a camp for Roman Demigods have one of those."

"So?" She demanded, turning back to Octavian. "Other than the fact that Gwen hates him, give me one good reason I shouldn't be his friend?!"

Octavian paused before leaning forward to match her. "He's a tool," he replied. "He's an over achiever and if anyone even tries to beat him at combat, him and all of his popular guy friends will take you down. Socially, physically, even emotionally."

"Well no offence," Reyna mused. "But I haven't seen him do anything bad. So I'm not going to take your word for it." Octavian shrugged like it didn't bother him and went back to doodling. There was a minute of silence before Jason tried to look at what he was drawing. Octavian moved the notepad away from him, all mysteriously.

Jason furrowed his eyebrows together and snatched it from him. "52, 21, 837?" Jason asked, reading something off the page. There were loads of little drawings, but most were centred around those three numbers. "These mean anything?" Jason asked, holding the notepad away when Octavian tried to snatch it back.

"Nothing!" He exclaimed. "I mean, no. They don't."

Jason just scoffed at the reliability. They then bickered about it for the next half an hour, thoroughly annoying Reyna.

-0-0-0-0-0-

That's it, she was going to go insane. Whenever Demigods were in door duty, outside the camp, they usually found something to entertain themselves with. A book, magazine, even a phone, which Dakota definitely owned. He was one of the few in camp who did. So why couldn't he play a game or something? Or keep texting Reyna?

No! He decided to twitch and pace.

Gwen leaned against the wall, her spear discarded and her contact mirror out, checking her light pink lip gloss and trying not to watch him, as his fingers twitched. But the pacing? It was driving her nuts! "Can you, like, not? Maybe?" She asked after a while, slamming the little mirror and glaring angrily at him.

"Not what?" He asked, pausing his infuriating step as he turned to face her.

"Can you not sit down?" She suggested. "I have a magazine in my bag if you're really so overcome with boredom!" She gestured at the white rucksack at her feet. He shook his head as he continued. Back and forth and back and forth.

"Whatever magazine you have, I'm sure it's not my type." He claimed. New Rome had a few subscriptions to the big magazine companies and programmes, so people within the city, mostly the adults who'd left the Legion, could retire with entertainment.

"What?" Gwen asked, confused. " _Vogue Paris_ the best thing that happened to humanity ever!" He ignored her and kept fiddling and pacing. Finally, she rolled her eyes. "Dakota, look at me," she ordered. He turned around, and as they made eye contact, Gwen said: "Sit down, and don't fidget or talk." Without a second thought he did so, and she grinned proudly. She'd always had a certain influence over people. Been able to make them do things just by telling them too. "I don't know how that works," she mused, "but it's brilliant."

She kept her proud smirk and they sat in silence for a while, Gwen fiddling with her spear. She didn't really know how to use it. She'd started her training a few days ago, and weapons weren't really her forte. Unless you count her smile.

After about five minutes of bliss, Gwen was getting bored. Which was probably the perfect time for the attack. The first kid she saw was blonde, and nearing his twenties. He had a scar across his face and was tan. Gwen couldn't help but find him cute. But then he pointed to her and a bunch of his friends came around the corner, all in bronze armour, all holding weapons.

"Oh," she whispered. "Dakota, get up and fight or something!" He did what he was told and she angled her spear, shifting on her feet and whining a little. Why did they have to get attacked when she was on door duty?! She didn't really do much fighting though. She had gotten an idea. "Run yourself through with your sword," she ordered one of the attackers, and smirked slightly when he did so. She gave little commands like that, over and over.

"Gwen, I don't know what you're doing," Dakota admitted, wilding his own spear around with awkward ease, "but you're killing them!"

"Well duh," she rolled her eyes. "They're attacking us?!"

"But they're human!" Dakota yelled.

Gwen huffed. "Okay, none of you die," she asked, "but stab your-" She was interrupted by a piercing feeling in her neck. She got dizzy and fell to the floor. She begged herself not to close her eyes, but everything went black anyway.

-0-0-0-0-0-

Finally, their train showed up. Reyna and Jason fought for the window seats of their booth, and Octavian sat next to Jason. "This phone keeps going off," Octavian grumbled, pulling the flip phone out of his pocket. "Who's even texting you so much?" He checked the phone and noticed it wasn't Dakota. He almost smirked. "One of Gwen's minions," he announced, "asking Reyna how to 'take her down'." He turned off the phone and cocked his head at Reyna. "Well."

Reyna huffed and crossed her arms, looking out of the window. "Gwen is a bully," she excused. "And she can't get away with it."

"That doesn't mean you should be a bully back," he said. She turned to snap at Octavian when she realised it was Jason who spoke. Oh. There was a long pause as Jason turned to look slightly regretful. Octavian looked smug, and Reyna looked out the window, sucking her teeth in anger. When she decided to say something, a group of girls caught her eye and she stayed silent.

There were three teenage girls in a carriage a few feet down, and they turned away from Reyna as she turned to them. They'd been watching her. "Hey," Reyna whispered to the two boys in her booth. They had both been off in their own worlds but they looked up at Reyna's call. "Those three girls were staring at us." Both of the boys turned to look and Reyna rolled her eyes. Didn't they know anything about subtlety?

"Those ones?" Octavian said aloud, pointing over to them. Well, that was obvious. One of the girls noticed him and waved slightly. She had curly ombre hair and the name 'Chloe' stitched into her t-shirt. She wore shorts and ankle boots.

Reyna sighed. "Yes, Octavian. Those ones."

"Monsters?" Octavian whispered, turning to Jason.

Jason shrugged. "Or just normal girls who are mesmerised by us," he suggested. "I mean, the three of us are pretty hot. But not like we're trying. I mean, sure we're trying, but it's almost effortless." Reyna blinked. Jason nodded. "Monsters."

"What do we do?" Reyna whispered. She'd dealt with monsters before, when she was working her way to Camp Jupiter. But this was different. A planned attack and she was with people who could help her. Her hand itched to the knife at her belt.

"One each?" Octavian suggested. "But wait until they attack, to be sure."

"Stick with me," Jason said to Reyna. She remembered what he said when they first became friends. _I promise you_ , he'd said. _I won't let anything happen to you._ She was still mad about the comment he made earlier, but the sense of security was nice to have.

"Should we try to lure them away?" Reyna asked. "I want to be in control of the attack. I don't want to be surprised." Octavian actually pointed to her and nodded.

"Reyna, maybe you should go," Octavian suggested. "I think one of us should sit out of the fight in case the other two get hurt. So we don't all lose our legs, you know? Hypothetically speaking. And Jason and I have more experience."

Reyna blinked. "So I should sit out and play nurse while the two white boys go off to fight?" She summarised. "No thank you."

"I didn't mean it like that-" Octavian started.

"Just forget it," Reyna said, almost laughing at the idea of her sitting out. "I'm going to get some fresh air." She made it to the front of the carriage. They were going through a tunnel in the highway. She considered finding an emergency stop button when she heard screeching from their booth.

The three girls had pounced as soon as they outnumbered the boys. And their disguises fell as well. Their long hair was made of fire, and their legs were all mismatched. One goat leg, like a faun, and one metal leg, like a robot. Their fingernails had turned to claws, and their teeth to fangs. They descended upon the boys, who scrambled away, trying to get their swords in order.

Reyna recognised them from training sessions. Vampire women. They surrounded Jason and Octavian, baring their fangs, hissing: "You'll never make it to Chicago." The other people on the bus were screaming, cowering in their seats. They saw something, all right.

Jason had found his sword, but he struggled to clamber out of his seat so he could weild without being a danger to himself. Octavian had drawn his sword but was struggling to swing it in the right direction, trapped in the tiny booth seat.

Reyna rolled her eyes before finding the kill switch and pulling the cord. A loud siren wailed around them and the train screeched along the rails. People jumped and screamed and the vampires looked confused long enough for the boys to kick them away and get their weapons ready.

Reyna pulled her knife out and remembered a speciality of hers that she'd found out while fighting the pirates. She threw the knife as far as she could, aiming it perfectly. But the vampire, Chloe, was too fast. She spun around to face Reyna and caught the blade in her fist, cutting her hand and hissing in the process. The other two turned to see what happened as the first vampire headed for Reyna.

The vampire stalked up the aisle, baring her fangs at Reyna. She flicked her claws as well, and Reyna could only imagine what they would feel like scraping down her skin. Her two ugly sisters hopped on top of the seats on either side of her and crawled towards Reyna, figuring she was a worthier target than either of the boys.

"Reyna Arellano," Chloe said, in an accent that was definitely from somewhere farther south than Georgia. "I've heard about you. You're a pretty little thing, aren't you?"

The twelve-year-old raised her chin. "A pretty little thing that could crush your skull if she wanted to," she replied. Chloe growled. Jason and Octavian moved up behind the vampires cautiously, looking for an opening. Reyna drew a sword from her belt, thanking her past self for being more prepared that to take only one weapon. She flashed it in front of the monsters, who hesitated.

"Reyna!" Jason exclaimed.

Chloe pounced at Reyna all of a sudden, while the vampires – empousa – on the either side lunged at her. Her hand felt like it was wrapped in a steal lock but she didn't drop her sword. She shoved her elbow into the stomach of an empousa, and thanked the Gods it wasn't made from the same metal as her leg. The empousa was winded but held onto Reyna.

Octavian tackled Chloe, and Jason ran at one of the vampires holding Reyna. He brandished his sword and the empousa ducked at his first strike. It was enough for Reyna to shake her off and she focused on the remaining empousa holding onto her. She kicked her backwards and she felt into a seat. Reyna angled her sword so as soon as she got up, Reyna could stab her. She exploded into gold dust and floated away.

She turned to help Jason, but he had his vampire in a headlock. He sliced his sword along her neck and she crumbled into powder. They turned to Octavian, who'd been pinned down by his empousa. She threw him against a wall and he landed on the floor, passed out. "TAVY!" Jason called.

Reyna charged at the vampire so Jason could run to his brother, but she stopped in her tracks when the empousa started lying down on the floor, a grin covering her face. "Wha-" she started, but stopped when she noticed the trickle of liquid leaking towards them, running along the aisle. Something told Reyna that wasn't water. Chloe started lowering her fire hair into the liquid and Reyna's face fell. "GET OFF THE TRAIN!" She yelled. She grabbed Octavian and forced open the nearest door. The train was still moving slightly, as it took freaking ages for a train to stop on emergency. She pushed Jason off as well and pleaded with as many citizens as she could, before jumping off as well.

Her and Jason grabbed Octavian and pulled him away. "Our bags," Jason cried. "We left our ba-"

He was interrupted by orange flames invading the cart at a rapid speed. The seats, the bags and the empousa were all engulfed in the fire, but Chloe was still alive. "No time," Reyna huffed, dragging Octavian, who was slightly awake, to his feet. "Let's just go!"

* * *

 **Author's Note: REVIEW! Let me know what you guys think! -Izzy**


	9. Chapter 9

**Author's Note: I wanted to do some more character-building with Dakota here, as I haven't really done much with him yet, so tell me what you think.**

 **Also, just so you guys know: This story is one out of two of my main concerns at the moment. I'm hoping to have it finished by the end of the Summer Holiday so updates will be more frequent hopefully.**

 **Thanks to ShutUpPercy who beta'd this for me!**

* * *

 **Chapter Nine**

Dakota Sharman. Perfect hair. Expensive clothes. Three-time winner of Golden Laurels during War Games. There was a reason he and Gwen were in the same group of friends. She was incredibly popular. Working her way up the pecking order to the crown. She wanted to be praetor one day. She did whatever she needed to, to be in control.

So did Dakota.

They were the same. Their personalities clashed. And that's why they hated each other so much. Or at least, that was his theory.

These thoughts ran through his head as he tried to answer Gwen. "Why do you hate me so much?" She'd asked, after he's started bickering with her. He was looking for a way out of that room, that clean, nicely painting room with the double bed and the circle windows. He didn't have time to put up with her.

"I just do," he answered, trying to pick the lock on the thick door.

She rolled her eyes. "Well we're stuck on this ship together, so you'll have to get over it."

Dakota turned to her, blinking. "How to you know it's a ship?"

Gwen paused. "Are you very stoned?" She asked before jabbing her thumb towards the window, where a fish swam past. Oh. Okay then, they were on a ship.

"You're not funny," he told her, bluntly.

"No, but I am smart," she said, matter-of-factly as she got to her feet and sauntered over to him. "And very observant. When we were being marched into this room, I got a proper look at the door. Between the panels of wood is a very thin sheet of Celestial Bronze, an extremely rare metal that does the same as Imperial Gold. Which means the only thing that can break it is our weapons, and those were taken from us. Trying to escape is pointless."

"Okay smarty-pants," Dakota huffed. "How about the windows?"

"Bolted with simple steel?" Gwen told him, confused as to why he asked.

"So can we get out through there?"

She blinked. "No, because if we break one our room will flood and we will die? We're under water Dakota, a miraculous escape can't happen. We're stuck here until somebody saves us or our captors tell us otherwise."

Dakota sighed before sitting down on the bed. "I could probably barricade the door with vines or clematis or something, if someone comes to try and kill us."

"Clematis is a vine," Gwen replied, rolling her eyes as if Dakota was an idiot. Then she paused. "Isn't it?"

He just looked her up and down briefly. "You play dumb," he noticed. "That's interesting."

"I do no such thing," Gwen replied. "I'm not the sharpest pencil in the pot. But I pay attention."

He paused as she started to pace, not meeting his eye. "No, you play dumb," he insisted, "so you don't scare away those who you want on your side. But if someone you don't like, like me or Reyna, comes along, you show them just how smart you can be." She looked up at him then, with the slightest of smiles on her lips and a raised eyebrow, as if to say oh really? But she looked dangerous in that minute. "Gwen you're a predator."

"And you refuse to be my next victim," she added. "You refuse to let me get to you. You refuse to get hurt. Why is that, Dakota?"

He paused, trying to mimic her expression. He crossed his arms and leaned on the doorframe. "Because, until a few weeks ago, I was the best soldier on the cohort. One could argue it was Jason, but he never spoke to anyone. He could be a leader if he tried, but he never did."

"What does that have to do with me?" Gwen asked.

"Do you know what it feels like to be the best soldier on the cohort?" He asked her. "A real leader. To have every single person in the Fifth chanting your name? And then you, of all people, finally join up, and suddenly, all the attentions on you, because you know how to control people instead of working with them. And everyone starts looking at you instead of me. Can you guess what that feels like? It feels like something's been stolen from you. And you'd do anything to get it back. So that's why I hate you, Gwen."

She paused before forcing a smirk. She flipped a strand of hair from her face and threw a sarcastic smile at him. "At least I don't have an intense need to please."

Before Dakota could answer, the door to their room was unlocked and a boy walked in. He was about nineteen years old and had sandy blonde hair and tan skin. He had a scar across his face and beach shorts. The kind of boy-next-door that Gwen couldn't help but find cute.

"Welcome to the Princess Andromeda," he said, smiling at them. "I'm Luke. You're Dakota and Gwen. Ten points to whichever of you can guess why you're here." There was a pause. Gwen didn't look at him and Dakota guessed that she had a theory. "Really? No clue?" Luke asked. "Well that's disappointed. Who knows what a Titan is?"

"The Gods… relatives," Gwen spoke up after a minute of struggling to find the right word.

"Smart girl," Luke pointed at her. "Now, who here feels like they've been abandoned by their godly parent?" Neither of them spoke up. "Ever got a visit from Mommy or Daddy?"

"We're not pre-schoolers," Dakota butted in. "You can just talk to us like people."

"Ooh," Luke mused. "I think I hit a nerve. Ever been abused Dakota? Not by monsters, by the parents you were stuck with? It's pretty common among demigods to have bad backgrounds. And our Godly parents never help. And when we find out about them, we're lucky if we're even claimed. We want to punish them. Make them feel as bad as we do."

"We're not a 'we'," Gwen chimed in. "We're not on your side. We're not working with you. You kidnapped us."

"Because we need your help," Luke said. "We won't be able to wage war on Olympus of Camp Jupiter stands prepared to defend it. We need to get inside. To get you on our side first. So I need to know the entrances into your camp, the important places and the important people."

"You want to charge," Gwen corrected. "You want to force our surrender. I won't help you. Neither will Dakota."

Luke sighed, as if it was unfortunate. "You two are very powerful chess pieces," he told them. "And if I can't have you on my side, then we can't have you at all."

"Wait," Dakota said as Luke turned to leave. "What would we need to do?"

"Eat dinner with me every night," Luke told them. "Tell me as much as you please and answer all my questions that follow. Talk to me about your Camp. You can wander freely around the ship through the day, explore our events. You'll be offered complete protection from the Titans. Or… you can be killed. Your choice."

Dakota and Gwen exchanged a look before turning back to Luke and saying simultaneously: "The first one."

If Gwen could tell Dakota to shut up and sit down when he didn't want to, and if she could convince everyone at Camp to be on her side, then she could convince Luke that a lie is the truth. All she needed was that one little trick up her sleeve.

"While we're on this ship," Gwen whispered to Dakota, as Luke led them out of the room, "don't talk to me. We don't know each other here."

"Fine by me," he replied.

-0-0-0-0-0-

 _The boy was no older than thirteen. Probably twelve. About Reyna's age, that was. He had dark skin and short black fuzzy hair. He wore a ripped red sweaters and tattered jeans. He had no shoes and cuts and bruised all over his skin. His eyes were wide and pleading, and looking straight at her. And she felt guilty for making that boy look so broken._

 _"Oh my Gods," she whispered, kneeling down next to the spot he sat in on the cold metal floor. "Are you okay?!" She tried to reach out to touch him, to examine his injuries, but her hand went right through him. Like a ghost._

 _She looked around them and wondered how she'd gotten there. It was almost like a prison cell, but with no bed or food. Metal bars surrounded them and outside them was a dark room. So dark she couldn't see anything. She didn't know how she got in there, or how to get it. "It's going to be okay," she said to the boy. "I'm going to get you out. What's your name? I'm Reyna."_

 _He didn't reply, or seem to acknowledge her in anyway. Then she realised. This was a dream. A dream showing her the demigod they were rushing to save. He was really in a cage, and really needed their help._

 _The door to the dark room opened and someone walked in. He was tall and pale, with dark hair and a dark suit. About thirty years old with his hands behind his back. "Good morning, Bobby," he said, politely. "Bad news, I'm afraid. You're rescue team were delayed after an unfortunate train ride. Some empousai seemed to feel the need to keep them away from Chicago. I should have a word with their master and determine this treachery."_

 _The boy – Bobby – paused before lifting himself into a kneeling position. "I don't get it," he whispered, weakly. His voice was broken and croaky. "Why are you rooting for the people who are trying to save the guy you kidnapped?"_

 _"Because we need them here," the man answered. "Simple as that. Here." He held two bottles of water to Bobby through the bars of his cage. "This is all you get for today. Out of curiosity, how long have you gone without food?"_

 _The boy shrugged. "Almost two weeks," he answered, almost sadly as he remembered food._

 _"So you only have about seven or eight days before it gets too much," the man mused. "Interesting. Wouldn't want you to die before the get here, hm? Perhaps I'll find you a snack. Or perhaps I'll be too busy."_

 _"Look just stop taunting me, okay?" Bobby demanded. "Give me food or don't. Give me water or don't. Let me go or don't. I'm not about to sit here and make conversation with you. Just leave me alone."_

 _The man smirked. "The youth of today. So full of rage." He paused before walking out, leaving the poor boy alone in the dark, cold cell._

* * *

When Reyna woke up she could feel tears in her eyes. She took a minute to force them away. She didn't need anyone seeing her cry. The sun was just rising over the equator, but the brightness was blocked by tall building behind them. They sat on one of those large doorways at the entrance to old buildings, like banks. All huddled together to keep warm.

At least they had each other. Bobby had no one.

"Wake up," she said, shaking the boys awake. "C'mon, get up!" How they weren't awakened by the concrete underneath them, she had no idea.

"What time is it?" Jason grumbled, unhappily.

"Time to get up and save a life," Reyna replied. "Now come on!" Octavian woke up fully first and got to his feet, rubbing his eyes and stretching his arms. Jason was soon to follow, but he just sat down and yawned. "I had a dream," Reyna told them. "About the boy we're saving. The one who was taken by storm spirits. He's alive, but they're keeping him in a cold cage with no food and it's so dark in there. If we don't get to him in a week…"

Jason paused, waiting for her to continue. "If we don't get to him in a week, he'll…"

She tried not to picture him. He'd been so skinny and his skin was so dry. She didn't need to feel sad again. "He'll die," she sighed. "Because he's going to starve to death."

There was a pause. "We need a plan," Octavian said. "If we get to the airport nearby I might be able to control to mist to make it seem as though we already paid and showed passports. Maybe they'll turn a blind eye to the fact that we're kids."

"Octavian, the airport is about twenty miles there and we don't have any supplies. No food or water. We'll collapse before we get there," Jason said.

"We'll hitchhike a ride. Three lost kids just looking for their parents," Octavian added. "We have no other choice! We have nothing and this kid is going to die."

"We have some stuff," Reyna chimed in.

Octavian blinked. "All our stuff blew up, remember?"

"Well not the stuff we have on ourselves," Reyna remembered. "What? You guys didn't carry _anything_?" She pulled an ambrosia brownie from her jacket pocket, still wrapped in plastic. Then a tiny flashlight from her shoe. "I have $20 as well, but I'll hold on for that."

Octavian took the stuff from Reyna and stuffed his bigger pockets. "Hand me the money as well?" He asked. "It's better to keep it all together."

"Trust me, I should hold onto the money," Reyna said. Octavian just held out his hand. Reyna rolled her eyes, huffing. She reached into her bra and pulled out a note, making Octavian pause.

"You can hold onto the money for now," he surrendered.

"That's what I thought," she answered. "So we'll buy some food and then hitchhike?" She walked around the corner with Jason as Octavian started rethinking some plans. One would almost think he was leading this quest. But Jason let him. Maybe out of love or pity or maybe he didn't even notice that Octavian was taking charge.

"I'm sorry about what I said yesterday," Jason said as they walked around the corner. "I snapped at you about Gwen. I encouraged you to get your own back and I'm sorry about being a bit of a jerk." There was a pause at they kept walking. "I'm trying to get along with Gwen. She's become a big part of Octavian's life so…"

"Don't worry about it," Reyna sighed. "I'm not going to get upset after one stupid comment."

Jason paused again. "Maybe you and Gwen could... I don't know… call a truce?"

Reyna looked offended. "Jason she pushed me off of a tower when I trusted her. I wasn't at Camp for two days before she turned everyone against me. No, I'm not going to call a truce with her. If she wants to apologise and surrender, then so be it."

Jason almost sniggered. "Look at you, Reyna," he almost exclaimed. "I mean; do you even hear yourself? You're talking about it like a war. It's just a petty fight between teenage girls. It's not that big of a deal."

"It's a big deal to me," Reyna replied, snappily.

It was December, nearing Christmas time. The busy streets were riddled with shoppers, all wrapped in big coats and hats to keep warm. All Reyna had was a little jacket and Jason wasn't much better off with one sweater. They popped into a little shop and bought some very cheap food with their money, not talking to each other the entire time. _All friends fought,_ Reyna reminded herself. _This was nothing but her and Jason's first fight out of many._

When they got back to Octavian they walked out of town to the nearest motorway and sat on the side. By noon, they were getting bored of calling for cars. Jason stood out, waving his arm at passing people. Reyna took the chance to sit out, against the railing and think about her dream.

They were walking right into a trap. The storm spirits wanted them there. That's why they kidnapped that boy – to lure them to Chicago. She wanted to tell the others. Especially Jason. She wanted to warn him. They were still friends after all, and that meant it was her job to protect him.

But she was afraid that he would tell Octavian, and Octavian will turn around and go right back home. Or call the praetors and have the quest cancelled.

Reyna was Jason's friend, but she was also a demigod, and she needed to save Bobby. Just the thought of him being so weak, so alone… it was heart-wrenching. She couldn't risk his life for the sake of safety.

She kept thinking this as she tried to block out the sound of the boys talking. If she listened she might have just lost her mind. "We could contact the praetors and ask-"

"They won't help. Our allies might-"

"We need to do this alone-"

"If we head East-"

"Catch a ride North-"

"Okay, what is going on?" Reyna exclaimed after a minute. She was sick and tired of them making plans for the quest as though she wasn't even there. "Why am I not a part of this conversation?" She demanded, before scoffing. "You two do this all the time."

"No we don't," Jason said, turning to her.

"Yes we do," Octavian snapped, still talking to Jason. "Well there's no point in denying it." He turned to Reyna with his arms crossed. "Honestly, you're more trouble than your worth, and your opinion doesn't matter to me." Then he turned back to Jason, ignoring Reyna's offended expression. "At least _I'm_ honest."

"I don't care what matters to you, this is Jason's quest," Reyna exclaimed. "I can understand him being mad at me, but what the hell did I ever do to you?"

"Guys-" Jason tried to interrupt.

"You're insecure," Octavian stated, blankly, going right into it. "You're shallow. You're willing to sink to Gwen's level, become a bully, just to hurt her. At least she admits her flaws but you're just as bad as she is. Maybe even worse."

"Guys!" Jason tried again.

"If you hate me so much," Reyna asked through gritted teeth, "then why are you dating someone _just like me_?"

"Guys!"

"What?!" Reyna and Octavian exclaimed at the same time, turning to face Jason. A car had pulled up next to him and a trucker in the front seat was waving at them.

"This lovely man's going to give us a lift North," Jason told them.

* * *

 **Author's Note: Revieewww! -Izzy**


	10. Chapter 10

**Author's Note: I know I said I'd be faster but I'm a terrible person so...** **I do love you guys though. And I do feel bad about how slowly I update. So there's that...**

 **I enjoyed writing this chapter. Idk if you guys will like it but I like it.**

 **Thanks to ShutUpPercy who beta'd this for me! Great person right here**

* * *

 **Chapter Ten**

Jimmy – the truck driver they hitched a ride from – could only take them so far. He dropped them off somewhere in Utah, which was ages away from Chicago. Octavian, Jason and Reyna wandered through the unknown streets, trying to brainstorm any kind of travel route that didn't cost a billion dollars.

"You know," Reyna mused at one point. "We're like, really lucky that trucker wasn't an axe murderer. I'm just saying, if we look at things optimistically, we're doing pretty good. We're closer to Chicago than we were yesterday. I guess that's good."

"How long is it from Utah to Chicago?" Octavian asked.

Jason paused before asking someone. "About 20 hours by car," he said.

"That's less than a day," Octavian mused. "Does anyone know how to steal a car?"

"None of us are older than thirteen years old," Reyna said, rolling her eyes. "None of us know how to drive a car." She was still annoyed at the pair of them for the argument they'd gotten into before hitching a ride. She wasn't a part of this group and they both knew it.

Jason just sighed. "I'm hungry."

Reyna paused. "Come on, I have an idea for some food."

They found a little corner store with no costumers around. It was about lunch time, so everyone was at work or at school. Octavian walked in first, pushing sunglasses on. The shopkeeper watched him like he might be trouble.

Reyna and Jason went in next, together. They'd tried to make themselves look menacing, with hoods and a spikey wristband Reyna had found for a dollar. They messed up their hair and their tired eyes and pale skin already made them look hungry.

The shop keeper's attention was turned onto them, clearly more dangerous than Octavian.

Jason found a large chocolate bar and sneaked it into his pocket. Reyna hid a water bottle under her hoodie. "Hey!" The shop keeper yelled. Reyna and Jason half turned to him. "What do you think you're doing?"

"Browsing?" Jason suggested.

"I saw you," the shop keeper growled. "Put those things back."

"What things?" Reyna asked, blinking. Jason slipped a packet of crisps under his shirt.

The shop keeper glowered at them. He moved out from behind his cashier and headed towards them, a mean snarl on his face. "That chocolate bar, that water and those crisps," he said. "Put them back before I call the authorities. You're old enough to get punished for this."

"We didn't take anything," Jason said, as Reyna grabbed a box of biscuits and hid them.

"I am watching you shop lift as we speak," the shop keeper exclaimed. "You just stole that box of biscuits. I'm not stupid you know! I'm not blind!" As his full attention was on Jason and Reyna, he didn't notice Octavian leave his store, his coat filled with food and drink.

"You're right," Reyna sighed. "I'm sorry." She took the water and biscuits from her hoodie and put them back in their place. Jason paused. "Adam," Reyna scolded him. "He's going to call the authorities. Or our parents." Jason slowly put his things back. "Again, sorry," Reyna said, as they backed out of his shop.

They met Octavian a couple streets down on a small grassy hill on the highway, as he unloaded all of the stolen goods from his coat, and handed them out. Bread and cheese along with some big water bottles and some chocolate and sweets. They laughed a little at the idiocy of the shop keeper as they passed food around.

"How did you know that would work?" Jason asked Reyna.

She shrugged. "When my sister and I ran from Puerto Rico, we didn't have anything. We met some homeless guy called Wren. He'd do the shop lifting as Hylla would 'teach' me that stealing was wrong. I was only like, ten at the time so the jig went a little differently."

Jason nudged Octavian, who rolled his eyes. "Whatever happened to Wren?" He asked. Jason had asked him to be nicer to Reyna earlier that day, and that meant taking an interest in her life. He guessed.

Reyna just sucked her teeth, looking down the hill. "There's a bin over there," she commentated, holding up her sweet wrapped. Jason and Octavian handed her their wrappers as well and she walked down the hill as they packed the rest of the food up.

"You know, when this quest is finished, we still have that family reunion party to go to," Octavian reminded him.

Jason just scoffed. "I'm not family. I'm their pet. Remember?"

Octavian just threw him a 'not amused' face. "You're my brother," he reminded him. "I want you there. Just be cool?"

"They're judgemental First-Cohort jerks," Jason said. "No offence."

"None taken; all true," Octavian huffed. "But I have to go. So you have to go."

Jason was just looking past Octavian, a confused expression on his face. "Where's Reyna?" He asked.

Both boys turned to the bin Reyna had jogged to. She was nowhere to be seen. They ran down the hill and looked up and down the street from the trash can. Nowhere. Octavian looked in the garbage can. "She left the wrappers here," he said. "You look left and I'll go right?"

Jason nodded before running left.

-0-0-0-0-0-

The Princess Andromeda wasn't that bad after the first night. Gwen actually kind of liked this place. They had deck chairs and water slides, manicurists and hair stylists. She bought a light blue bikini from the little shop and spent her time on a deck chair enjoying an alcohol-free (Luke had limitations) cocktail while getting her nails done.

Thirteen and already living the life. Gwen had style.

And all she had to do was meet with Luke and Dakota every evening to talk about their home. Luke never pestered them or even asked too many intrusive questions. He would just ask them about the routine and talk to them about some memories there. Where they lived, what they did for fun. They just talked about it. It wasn't an interrogation.

Of course, when the important information came up, Gwen lied through her teeth. She told Luke to believe it, and he did. Simple as that.

So really, the only problem was Dakota. At every little event she went to, he was there, claiming it was a coincidence. She'd visit the gym for a yoga session and see him hitting the treadmill. She'd go to the pool to laze about on a floaty to see him yelling his way down a nearby water slide. Every buffet, every dinner. They even ate at the same time. And their separate bedrooms were next to each other, so they saw each other every morning as well.

Gwen started expecting it. She handed Dakota a tray for breakfast every morning. To cut the queues, he'd grab her some toast while he made himself cereal, and she'd make them both hot chocolates on the other side of the room.

They'd only been on that ship for two days and they were already… communicating?

Gwen shuddered at the thought.

"So we got kidnapped from our home," Dakota mused one lunch, picking at a pizza in the crowded room, "and now we're about to get questioned about our home so our enemies can invade. And I'm just sat here eating pizza."

"Well are we supposed to jump into the ocean to escape?" Gwen asked. "I've watched Titanic, and I don't want to die."

"We're not in the middle of the ocean," Dakota rolled his eyes. "It's probably only a mile or two away from land. I can swim that. I think."

Gwen was leaning on one hand, the other picking bored at her food. However, at that statement, she looked up. "Well we could do the maths," she shrugged. "We swim in metres. There are 1609.34 metres in a mile. We have a 50 metre pool at Camp. I can do about two laps a minute. Do you know how many laps we'll have to do to get to land? Roughly 32.18. That will take us all day. All day for all the sea monsters on this ship to get us and rip us apart. That's assuming the freezing water doesn't kill us, or a shark."

Dakota just looked speechless. Gwen expected him to argue but he didn't. He just blinked. "You're smart?"

"What?"

"I always thought you were some bimbo who cares more about her hair than her brain," Dakota said.

Now Gwen paused. "Oh, I do," she shrugged. "I'd much rather have a nice haircut than be smart. Do you know what a burden it is to be surrounded by idiots all day?" She sighed before saying, "My dad was really big on books. He was a Physicist. He'd drill maths and Science through my head. Turned out that's all he wanted me for. I got to camp very young, and I guess learning things, drilling my brain with numbers and facts was a way to hang onto him."

Dakota sighed and chewed his lip. "I never knew my Mom," he said. "She didn't want me. I was adopted by these two rich conservative people. I guess I was spoiled. Then they told me I was adopted and I ran away. They didn't look for me. Then I found Camp and here we are. So… there's that."

Gwen just held her chin up and observed him with a cold stare. And it took her at least thirty seconds to figure out how to reply to that. "I'm sorry, are we friends?"

"No, not at all," Dakota huffed, looking disgusted.

Gwen smirked and looked all over the room, watching Luke talking to an advisor and pointing to Gwen and Dakota. She crossed her arms and watched. "I think we'll have to be," she mused.

"What?"

"Friends," she said, rolling her eyes. "I think Luke is going to try and separate us. We'd talk more without each other. I mean it makes sense. If I was going to say something dangerous, I'd want you to kick me under the table."

"Maybe it's best if we do talk," Dakota sighed. "I mean… I've never even seen my Dad. Never spoken to him or heard from him. He doesn't care. None of them do. Maybe punishing them is a good idea." Gwen kicked him under the table. "Hey!"

"You were about to say something dangerous," she defended.

He paused before sighing. "What did you say about being friends?" He asked, scowling.

"If we look inseparable, Luke may realise we won't talk without each other at all," she mused. "It's just a thought. A fake friendship in favour of the Camp. I mean we end up at the same places anyway. Might as well go together and pretend like we're not disgusted by each other's presence."

"Sounds challenging," he scoffed. "Fine."

Gwen rolled her eyes.

-0-0-0-0-0-

When Reyna woke up she instantly felt a stinging pain in her neck. She tried to sit up but she was almost entirely numb from the waist up. She blinked but her vision remained foggy and unclear. She tried to speak but she couldn't feel her tongue.

After a minute her vision started to clear. She was curled up on a hardwood floor of something that looked like a trailer. There was a bed in one corner, a little kitchenette, a small couch. A thick metal bars between the ceiling and floor, locking Reyna into that one little corner. She tried to speak again but her breath hitched and she coughed instead.

"You're awake," said a vaguely familiar voice. Although Reyna couldn't quite pin a face to it. "Excellent. Now we can get started." Reyna looked around for the speaker and found her, sat on the floor outside the cage, leaning against the wall of the trailer. She was smiling sadistically at Reyna and toying with a gun.

It took Reyna a minute to recognise her. "You're the-"

"The empousa from the train whose sisters you killed," she finished, getting to her feet. "I go by Kelli." Reyna couldn't tell if Kelli had a human form or if it was just the mist, but she looked pretty normal, without the flame hair or the fangs.

"Bitch," Reyna corrected, forcing herself to sit up and remember what happened. Her elbow was in pain; bruised even. But her knuckles were fine. She was attacked from behind and she elbowed them in the nose. That's right. Then the stinging in her neck was a needle and the numbness… she had fallen unconscious.

"Now, now, no need for the slander," Kelli sighed. "It's going to be a long night. Leila?" The trailer door opened and a girl walked in. No, this one wasn't a monster. Reyna could tell. This girl was human. She was Asian, pale with dark curly hair, about the same age as Reyna. She was slender and wore comfortable clothes that, for some reason, made Reyna think she must have been a good hugger.

"Call him," Kelli ordered.

The girl – Leila – picked up a phone from the Kitchenette and dialled a number before handing it to the vampire, who put it on speaker. "Reyna?!" Came a voice from the other end of the line, a desperate, pleading voice. Jason.

She tried to speak but Kelli pointed the gun at her so she shut up. "That depends," the vampire mused. "How badly do you want to see her alive?"

"Who's this?" Jason asked after a pause.

Kelli smirked. "Ask my sisters. Oh wait, you can't. They're dead. You killed them not two days ago."

"I didn't… oh," Jason said, shocked. Reyna had almost forgotten about the phone they'd taken with them room Camp in case of emergencies. She wondered how Leila had gotten their number. She wondered if Octavian was delighted in her absence. "You're the vampire who blew up the train," Jason concluded.

"Good job," Kelli grinned, viciously. "Want proof?" She raised the gun to Reyna and fired.

The bullet hit her leg, in the centre of her shin. Reyna had never wondered what it felt like to get shot. She'd never really been that curious. She didn't really know how to feel about the experience. On the one hand, she was glad the pain seemed minimal. Honestly, she went numb with shock, so it didn't really hurt. She didn't want to scream or anything. But the numbness spread to her eyes, her ears. Everything. She didn't feel anything for so long that she was afraid she'd never feel anything again. It scared her that she was so unresponsive and so powerless.

When she came too, only a second had past. But it felt like forever.

The numbness faded before Kelli lowered the gun again, and then the pain hit. Reyna wished she wouldn't scream. She wished to all the Gods that she could just grind her teeth and stay strong, and stand up even. But she screamed because staying strong through that pain was impossible.

"Hurt her again, and you're dead."

She heard those words come from the phone after a pause. Jason sounded breathy, as if he'd been the one screaming.

"I hurt her again; she's dead," Kelli replied, handing the gun over the Leila. "All I need is a couple of answers about your camp. My friend Luke's trying to get them the friendly way. I want to get them the real way. Now torturing a Roman for information? No go. But they're as emotional as the rest of us. So if I torture a Roman's best friend, then I think I'll get what I want."

"What do you want to know?" Jason asked, almost instantly.

"What's the best way to get into your camp?" Kelli asked.

"There's a door in a tunnel under a hill in San Francisco," Jason said. "I think it's called Caldecott tunnel or something. If your invading, then big monsters can't go through so they'll have to go over the hills is they can break through the mist. The magical barriers can be broken through simple magic."

Kelli smirked before getting to her feet. "We'll be outside." She left the trailer while on the phone and Reyna turned to Leila, who looked stressed.

When she regained the ability to speak, Reyna leaned against the bars and looked at her pleadingly. "Got any toilet paper or something?" She asked.

"Seriously?" Leila asked, looked disgusting.

"For my leg, genius," Reyna said, rolling her eyes.

"Oh," she said. Leila got up and walked to the back of the trailer, coming back a few seconds later with a roll of tissue, which she pushed through the bars. Reyna was only wearing leggings, so she pushed them up and inspected the wound. After a deep breath, she stuck two fingers in and reached around for a bullet, using the toilet paper to gag her screams. Then she wrapped the wound up as tightly as she could and tried to breathe through the pain. "Well you're tough," Leila observed.

Reyna just looked up at her and shrugged. "I get over my shit quickly," she said. "So what are you? Mortal?"

"Demigod," Leila answered.

Reyna raised an eyebrow. "Demigod working against other Demigods?"

"I work against the Gods," Leila shrugged. "It's not personal. I've never even heard from my Godly mother, who left me with my abusive mortal Dad. Wouldn't you want revenge too?"

Reyna almost laughed when she remembered her Dad. The Pirates. She never got help from her mother. "That's everybody's story," Reyna snapped. "It doesn't make you a special snowflake. Invading the home – the only safe sanctuary for kids just like you – isn't going to make your mom sorry."

"No, but raising her father will," Leila said, smirking proudly. "My Mom's Ceres. Her Dad is Saturn. The Titan? We're going to raise him up and storm Olympus, burning that place to the ground. That will make her sorry."

Reyna finished wrapping up her leg, which seemed to hold the minimal amount of bleeding, before holding the cardboard hinge back to Leila. She held her hand inside the cage as she held the piece of rubbish out. "Here you go," she sighed. Her voice was croaky, probably from her previous scream and she ached all over.

Leila just shrugged. "Keep it."

"How do you know I won't use it as a weapon?" Reyna asked, forcing a slight smile as an attempted cockiness. "You don't know what they taught us at Camp Jupiter, do you?"

Leila paused before scoffing slightly and reaching inside the bars to get the piece of rubbish. Reyna took the opportunity to grab her wrist and pull as hard as she could, as if trying to drag Leila into the cage with her. Leila's head hit the bars but not enough to knock her unconscious. Her feet fell from under her and she slipped to the floor, until she was on Reyna's – who's leg was too weak to stand – level.

Reyna reached her other arm out of the cage and shoved it against Leila's neck, chocking her between her forearm and the cold metal bar of the cage. Then she let Leila's other arm go. Leila clawed at Reyna's grip, but the trained demigod was too strong for her. With Leila distracted by not choking, Reyna took the gun out of her hand, before letting her go.

"You really think they didn't teach us _Top Ten Ways to Have Fun in a Cage_?" Reyna demanded, pointing the gun to Leila and scrambling further back into the cage, so Leila couldn't reach in and take the gun back. Leila stood up, rubbing her bruised neck and backing away from Reyna. "To be fair, it wasn't all me. I'd like to thank Kelli. I mean, what dumb-as-soup monster carries a frickin gun?!"

Reyna used the wall to force herself to her feet – the good one anyway. She felt as though she needed desperately to stretch, like her muscles were all compacting. But whenever she tried to stretch, the wound in her leg burned, so she didn't. "Where's the key?" She demanded, pointing the gun still.

Leila mumbled something as she raised her hands up in surrender.

"What?" Reyna yelled, trying to scare her.

"I don't have the key – Kelli has it," Leila exclaimed. "The latch us up there." She pointed to the top right corner of the cage, where a padlock sat on a flat metal slab. From every angle, Reyna couldn't reach far enough on the slap to get the lock.

"Open it," she commanded Leila. "Now!"

"I don't have the key!" Leila insisted.

Reyna took a deep breath and spoke as if the solution was obvious. "Then get it!" Leila ran out of the trailer to Kelli, who was probably still on the phone to Jason. Reyna waited a few seconds before aiming the gun at the padlock and pulling the trigger.

She preferred being on the giving end of the shot than the receiving end. The recoil made her jerk back and her arms felt slightly limp after, but she recovered quickly to look at her shot.

She'd missed.

 _Okay,_ she thought. _Let's try again._

It took her three more shots to blow the padlock off like they did in the movies and she felt pretty damn proud of herself after.

Then one wall of the cage opened like a door on a hinge and she limped into the rest of the trailer. Okay, so her leg was still injured, so she couldn't be a complete badass and storm out of there, but she was still holding the gun.

She'd be kidnapped and shot, and now she was holding the gun.

As far as badassery went, she'd done pretty good that day.

She limped out of the trailer, just as Kelli and Leila were running back. Panic flared in the vampire's eyes when she saw Reyna was free, and she couldn't help but love that feeling. She aimed the gun at Kelli and yelled, "Get back!"

"That little toy doesn't work on me," Kelli replied, smirking. Leila, on the other hand, held her hands up and took two steps back. Reyna knew the bullets wouldn't work on the empousa. They weren't Imperial Gold like their weapons were. But as the vampire advance, Reyna shot her anyway. Twice. Neither shot impacted Kelli, who kept moving forward.

Reyna desperately tried to fire again, but the pistol was out of amo. Reyna contemplated hitting her over the head with the butt of the gun like they did in movies, but that wouldn't work either. She ended up dropping the weapon and looking around for another one. No luck.

The vampire was close enough to breath on her and Reyna braced herself for the strike but none came. Instead, Kelli just grabbed her arm and dragged her along. The trailer was parked in the middle of a dark forest, so they walked over branches and logs. Reyna's leg started burning again as they walked and all Reyna wanted to do was sit down and let it rest. Again, no such luck.

It was only a ten-minute walk to the edge of the forest, where, on the side of a highway, Kelli let her go. "We organized your freedom," she said. Reyna spotted Jason, standing a few feet away. He ran forward when Reyna was free and instantly wrapped his arms around her to support her. She leaned on him and let her leg relax.

Kelli just grinned at the pair of them. "You betrayed your Camp," she mused, glaring at Jason. "The only thing stronger than your loyalty to your comrades, is your friendship with this _one insignificant_ girl."

"That one insignificant girl," Jason said, turning to Reyna, "is my _best friend_. So yeah, I'd do pretty much anything to save her. But I'd also do pretty much anything to save my Camp, so if that means outsmarting a monster then…"

He trailed off and Kelli's face fell in confusion. She started to speak but was cut off by an arrow being lodged into her arm. None of them could see the shooter, but the next arrow was lodged in her heart. She exploded into gold powder before she could locate her murderer.

Octavian jumped down from the trees and aimed the next arrow at Leila, who started to run for the woods. "She's a Demigod," Reyna called out before Octavian could kill her. "She didn't know any better."

Octavian sighed before putting his weapons away and chasing after her. Jason just sat Reyna down and started to inspect her leg injury. They sat on the side of the road, with Reyna's leg over Jason's lap. She reencountered everything that happened, including her fighting Leila, and the story of Saturn. He'd stolen some bandages to protect the wound properly, and gave her the ambrosia brownie. She only had a bite. She wanted to save the rest of it for the demigod they were saving – Bobby.

Besides, she didn't need her leg to be perfect. She just needed it to be good enough.

"We're good, right?" Jason asked her. "I mean, I said some stuff about you being like Gwen, and I kind of took Octavian's side in that whole argument... I'm really sorry."

Reyna just punched his arm. "We're good. I just feel… really weak at the moment. I mean, I felt utterly weak back there. I hate that. I want to feel strong, and capable. I want to have a plan and to know what I'm doing. I got some of the way, but I still needed saving. I don't want to need saving; you know? I want to be powerful enough by myself."

"Reyna," Jason sighed. "Everyone needs help sometimes. I need you way more than I'd like to admit. Besides, Octavian's wrong."

Reyna blinked. "What do you mean?"

"He thinks you're insecure," Jason said, shrugging. "Needy. Maybe a little shallow. And I think when you first arrived at Camp, you were, because you felt lost. But you grew into yourself when you got to Camp Jupiter. You changed. You got more confident. And that confidence will save your life. I mean, let's face it. You're awesome."

Reyna smirked. "Yeah, I'm pretty awesome," she agreed grinning.

* * *

 **Author's Note: I haven't gotten a review from any of you for ages. If you leave a comment I'll love you forever 3 -Izzy**


	11. Chapter 11

**Author's Note: Hey. Remember me? That friends-with-benefits that shows up to rock your world every couple of months before disappearing and never calling you?**

 **I'm baaacckk! Enjoy my god awful attempts at writing a fight scene. I cringed too, don't worry.**

 **Thanks to ShutUpPercy who beta'd this for me! - Quality person right here. sign me up.**

* * *

 **Chapter Eleven**

It took a while for them to decide what to do with Leila. Octavian had chased her down in the woods and she sat amongst the questers as they bickered. They'd bound her hands and feet so she wouldn't run.

Octavian had mentioned killing her more than once. Monster or not, she was an enemy. She had kidnapped and threatened 'one of his own' and that was punishable by death. That made Reyna blush slightly. Octavian had called her one of his own.

Jason wanted to take her back to Camp. There she could learn to get along with fellow demigods and not wage war. She'd be safe. Protected. Accepted. But getting her there was the problem.

"We could tell the police her parents live in Frisco," Reyna suggested. "Then demigods could get her when the mortals take her to the city."

"Lupa likes me, I could take her there," Jason suggested. "You two could keep going and I'll get enough money for a plane ticket from Camp to catch up with you."

"We could toss her in the river," Octavian suggested. "But since she'd incompetent at many things, she'll probably fail to drown and just catch a cold." Reyna laughed.

In the end, they called Camp and asked what they should do. They told them to take Leila with them to Chicago, and to leave her with people called the Amazons, who were allies and would ship Leila to Camp.

"Great," Octavian had huffed. "How in the hell are we supposed to get, not three, but four demigods to Chicago?"

Reyna thought for a minute. "I might have an idea…"

They sold some of their food cheap to a homeless person and found the nearest free-internet café. They boys got Leila into a booth and bought a cup of coffee to share. Reyna hopped onto one of the computers and bought up the search engine.

"I mean, it's not a bad idea," Jason mused. "And it's all we've got for the minute." He sat next to Leila, trapping her against the wall in case she tried to run. She'd been relieved of the rope bonds, but she still looked quite messy from running in the forest. So did Octavian, actually. And the boys and Reyna hadn't showered for days, and it must have been obvious. Gods, the quest was not going particularly well.

"It's not a great idea, either." Octavian sighed. "And we lost our loaf of bread to do it. If we get nowhere…"

"Were not going to get any further by doing nothing," Jason replied. He looked over to Reyna. The Café had a row of laptops on a tall table, a collection of barstools at each computer. Reyna was wedged between a white business man and a soccer mom trying to write a book. Both adults were giving her weird looks at the dirty ripped shirt, the limp she walked with and the messy hair. She hadn't had time to braid it, so it was stuck in a messy bun with an unintentionally decorative leaf.

"I think it's pretty smart," Leila chimed in, randomly.

Octavian just rolled his eyes at her. "No one asked you."

They'd almost finished the coffee by the time Reyna came over to their table, a napkin in hand. "Good news," she sighed, sitting next to Octavian, opposite Jason. "There's an Amazon business consultant who lives in Utah. I doubt an ancient race of female warriors would have a mortal business consultant. I think she's one of them. She lives in Salt Lake City."

That was the bad news, considering they were currently in Provo. "How are we supposed to get there?" Jason asked.

"Well I looked up train schedules," Reyna said, "but they're all pretty expensive. So I dug around on the internet to find deliveries of goods by train. There's one leaving in an hour, with like two people on board and they're busy driving."

Octavian was about to ask why that was relevant, but two seconds later, he understood what Reyna was suggested. Exchanging a look with Jason he sighed. "Well it's not first class," he said.

Jason paused. "As the quest leader I approve this idea."

Leila just looked lost. "I don't get it."

Three quarters of an hour later, they were hidden in the bushes, a few feet away from the train station, watching two men pack the thing with boxes. "This is where the train starts to speed up," Reyna told them, pointing to the tracks. "The drivers would have already checked it for hitchhikers, and will be concentrating on driving."

"How difficult will it be to jump on?" Octavian asked, nervously.

"It's not too difficult," Reyna mused. "It's scary the first time. Just grab the ladder at the end of the cart and jump onto the axis. Then it's super easy to climb into a cart. I just don't know how we're going to get Leila on board."

"I'll take care of that," Jason said. "I'm just worried Octavian won't make it."

Octavian shoved him in response.

"I'll do it with you, so I'll catch you if you slip," Reyna said, reassuringly. "Just don't think about falling."

When the train started moving, Octavian and Reyna stood up and walked over to it. It was still slow enough that they could walk alongside it – quite quickly – while looking for a suitable ladder. They needed a running start, so when they found one, Reyna took Octavian's hand, leading him into a run. Surprisingly, he didn't object. She grabbed the ladder first and he mimicked her actions, jumping onto the metal bar by the wheels.

Then they let go of each other and climbed over some railings to safety. "Oh my Gods!" Octavian exclaimed, panting slightly from the jump. "That was awesome! I want to do that again."

Reyna just laughed, looking really happy about the fact Octavian was smiling at her. "It does give you an adrenaline rush, doesn't it?" She replied.

Octavian just nodded, but before he could reply, Jason floated down next to them, holding Leila to his side with one arm. Reyna stared at him with wide eyes and an open mouth. "You can fly?!" She exclaimed, wondering how she never knew that before.

He nodded, casually. "Thanks to being the son of Jupiter, yeah," he said.

Octavian looked like he just remembered that fact. "You could have carried me on board," he said, rolling his eyes.

"I have only enough strength for one person," he replied, shrugging. Leila just looked kind of mesmerized by the view of the trees whipping past them.

"So, wait," Reyna huffed, "that time you made me walk all the way up that hill to Bacchus's Garden, you could have just flown us up there?"

Jason paused before nodding. "That's part of the fun," he said, as if it was obvious.

Reyna almost punched him.

The group found a nearby cart and sat amongst the wooden crates. For the first time in days, they weren't on their feet. They untied Leila and allowed her to move about. Jason took a nap. Octavian managed to have a look at Reyna's leg, from a medical perspective. "It's not getting better," he said, sighing. "It'll need stitches to stop bleeding properly. And there's beginning to be an infection."

"So what should I do?" Reyna asked.

"Eat the rest of the ambrosia brownie," Octavian suggested. "It should stop the infection and hopefully close the wound. Even if the scar stays."

Reyna just shook her head. "No. Bobby needs that."

Octavian looked into her eyes as if seeing them for the first time. "Why do you care so much about someone you've never met?"

Reyna paused before shrugging. "He's trapped and in pain. Scared. I know what that feels like." There was another silence as Octavian wrapped her leg back up, as tightly as possible. Reyna spoke first. "Hey, the other day when you were doodling those numbers… did they mean anything?"

Octavian shook his head. "They were… um, my birthday."

Reyna raised an eyebrow. "You were born on the 52nd of the 21st month in the year 387? Wow."

Octavian actually cracked a smile. "I don't know if they mean anything," he replied. "I don't even know where they came from."

The train ride wasn't going to be longer than an hour, so Reyna only let Jason sleep for half of it before waking him. Octavian had gone into another cart with Leila to see if they could find some supplies, so the two of them were alone.

"What do you want?" Jason grumbled as he woke up.

"You remember when you dragged me up that hill to see that view?" Reyna said, beginning to smirk. "Well I'm going to drag you awake to get revenge."

Jason just narrowed his eyes. "Reyna, we're in an ugly train. There's nothing pretty to see here."

She just pulled him to his feet and ran out of the cart. He paused, suspiciously before following her. But when he was revealed to the wind and fresh air, Reyna was nowhere to be seen. He looked through the door of the nearest cart and wondered vaguely if she'd jumped off.

"Up here."

He followed the direction of her voice to find her sat on top of the roof, smiling proudly with her legs crossed. "What are you doing up there?" He demanded. "Do you know how dangerous it is to stand on top of a moving train."

"I'm sat down, so I have some more balance," Reyna explained. "I used to do this with my sister, but she never allowed me to stand up. Octavian told me that your ability to fly comes from the ability to control the wind, so I figured – now's my chance."

Jason paused for a minute before finding the service ladder and climbing up to join her. He was working his magic before she'd even started standing up. She took his hands and dragged him to his feet and Jason did their best to make the rushing air go around them, and not hit them.

Her hair still flapped around in the breeze, but it wasn't as dangerous as he thought.

"Now look at the view," Reyna told him, still grinning.

Wow.

He'd been concentrating on Reyna before that moment, and he'd missed the view around them. So far, they'd only seen one city in Utah, so he didn't really know what kind of state it was. He didn't really know if it was grassy or snowy, straight or bumpy. What he saw instead shocked him.

On either side of the train, dark orange cliffs rose up in layers, rocks falling around them and little cactuses decorating the road. It didn't look like there'd be so much as a lake for miles, and he wondered how long these red mountains rolled on for. The railway was in a little crevice between the sharp, jagged cliffs. It was a beautiful scene. A stretch of land virtually untouched by man or machine apart from the little wooden tracks beneath them, and Jason was glad they were there, so he had the opportunity to see this.

"Oh," was all he said, without bursting out with holy shit! "This is better than Bacchus's Garden."

"Right?" Reyna laughed. "I win."

"You win," Jason agreed. There was another pause as Jason struggled to come to terms with what he was seeing. It was like a photograph that you found on the internet. You couldn't really believe it was real because you'd never seen it, but now that he was looking at it with his own eyes… it was hard to believe something could be this beautiful.

"This is going to be a really good memory one day," Reyna said. The two of them still held hands. "Amazing sights. On top of a train. With my best friend."

Jason nodded, before adding, "You know, Reyna. I don't have a lot of friends. You may or may not have noticed. But I think if I did, you'd still be my favourite. I'm really glad you're the one who sees this with me."

"Well for the record," Reyna mused, "I love being your friend."

-0-0-0-0-0-

Dakota had started to trust Gwen. He didn't like her by any means imaginable, but since she was the only person on that ship on the same metaphorical boat as him, he'd kind of decided to work with her. And that meant showing their strong alliance to Luke. He'd know that separating them would lead to a lack of support. Really, they were the only tie each other had to home. They didn't want to lose that.

So the two of them would sit together and play nice for the cameras. The metaphorical ones.

"This is so…" Dakota mused, sitting at the edge of the pool with his feet dangling in as Gwen lazed about on a deck chair. They weren't fighting and the sun was nice. Was he going to say cool? Peaceful? Despite all odds, enjoyable? "Boring," he finished. "Let's go do something."

"I am doing something," she replied, rolling her eyes behind her sunglasses. "I am doing something, Sharman. I'm tanning."

He paused. "You're ginger, Roden."

She sat up straight like she'd been electrocuted and glared at him. "I'm _actually_ strawberry blonde."

"You're getting freckles," he pointed out.

"No I'm not, I don't get freckles," she countered.

He sighed in exasperation. "If we're going to be 'friends' then we can't just do the things that you like. We have to compromise." So far, they'd been to see a movie twice, and checked out the mini-golf course. They had two inside jokes already.

But that didn't make them friends.

"Well what do you suggest?" Gwen asked, her tone cold. "I want class. But where you come from, people bathe in the river and use fruit for money. So your idea of fun is a little foreign to me." Dakota almost smirked. He just pointed to the slide behind him. The twisting, curling plastic trap painted in blue and white that was the largest slide on the whole ship. "No," Gwen answered.

"You scared?" He interrogated.

"Of ruining my hair?" She asked, wrapping her finger around one lock of her new perm. "Yes."

"If any of my real friends were here, I'd force them onto that ride," he told her. Technically he didn't have any real friends. He liked Reyna, but he'd always put his success above his social life. But if he did have a friend, like a real proper friend, he'd force them onto that ride.

After a pause and a glance to Luke, who was standing a little while away, she got up and threw her hand out to him, faking a wide smile. "Lead the way," she told him. Dakota took her hand, matching her look and leading her to the slide before realising something.

"What the hell happened?!" He exclaimed. He turned over Gwen's hand in his own and took note of the little white scars all along her knuckles. "Did Luke do that?" He asked.

"No," Gwen snapped, pulling her hand briskly away from him. "I fell over one time at Camp and um, cut my hand open. But It's fine, it's healing."

Dakota didn't really see how she could have landed on her knuckles but he decided not to question it. "Okay, let's go," he said, leading her up to the queue. As the special guests, they had VIP privileges, and cut all the lines. It was only monsters and demigods they were infuriating, anyway.

It was always hard to summarize the feeling of a ride. Roller-coaster, water slides. They all had that same feeling. Where all your guts are being lifted and moved about and there's that constant fear that you're going to fall off but you never do, and you want to close your eyes at every turn or drop. And he couldn't breathe. And the slide ended, and threw him into the air.

He landed in a deep pool after a minute of free-falling and barely had time to hold his breath. He heard Gwen scream and she landed next to him just a little bit after and they swam back to shore. They were panting around laughs and he felt the adrenaline go to his head. All he wanted to do was jump off the ship or sky dive or something stupid.

"That was awesome," Gwen laughed, her soaking wet hair clinging to her skin. Her eyes were bright and her smile was big. Different. Dakota had never seen her look like that. Gwen practised every move, but now she was shamelessly giggling with the brightest of expressions. It was real.

"I inhaled so much water," Dakota replied, coughing between laughs.

Gwen was about to say something when Luke joined them, looking down at the younger kids with a menacing look of anger. "Having fun?" He asked. Gwen and Dakota looked at each other before nodding. "That's the last time you have fun," Luke said. "You don't get all the VIP treatments just to lie to me about your camp. We tried doing this the nice way, so now we're doing this the hard way."

"What-" Dakota started, but he was grabbed from behind and felt another piercing in his neck.

-0-0-0-0-0-

Octavian ended up tying Leila to a railing and ordering Jason and Reyna to watch her to he could keep going without having to watch her all the time. He opened up every crate in every cart to check for clothes or supplies, but all he found was a couple pillows. He almost accidently stumbled upon the driver's room.

Three big, bulky men were fumbling about with controls, bickering amongst themselves about something. Their t-shirts were all too tight for their muscles, one of them had a tattoo of a skull and they must have stood three feet taller than Octavian did. He listened into their conversation for just a moment, and heard something he really didn't want to.

"The boys have more meat than the girls," one of the grumbled. "I want one of them."

"Fine then I get both the girls," another said, snappishly.

"No deal!"

Instantly, his radar pinged. At camp, they were taught how to identify a monster before it identified you as a demigod. And Octavian had learned one simple rule: Everything that can go wrong on a quest, will.

And right now, the last thing they needed was for the train to be driven by a trio of monsters.

Octavian almost sighed in disappointment, but he backed out and into the cart before. He started running back along the train, throwing doors open and climbing from one cart to another. He had left his sword with Jason, so he just prayed the men weren't coming his way. Just in case, he started moving crates in the way behind him, careful not to make any alarming noise, but making the run harder for any followers.

He burst into the cart where Jason and Reyna were sat casually and grabbed his weapon. "Monsters," he told them. No other words were needed. Jason and Reyna picked up their weapons and stood shoulder to shoulder.

Octavian felt his heart sink. Since when was Reyna Jason's partner, and not him? "We have to get off the train," Octavian said, shaking the negative thoughts from his mind. "We need to jump."

"We can't," Reyna said. "We're going way too fast. No matter how much we roll, we'll break our legs."

"That's what we have Jason for," Octavian reminded her.

"I can't carry three people at once," Jason exclaimed. "And we'd need to move fast."

"We'll figure it out!" Octavian insisted. He grabbed the food they had and slung the bag over his shoulder. He untied Leila and pulled her to her feet and the four demigods walked out of the cart, to the railings they needed to jump over.

The train was going too fast. If Octavian flew down with someone, the train would keep going. Fast enough that Jason's ability to catch up would be questionable to get the other people. It was Reyna, as always, who took charge.

"Take Leila and Octavian first," she ordered, taking the bag of food. "I'll run along the roof so you won't have to catch up so much."

"Reyna-"

"Jason, we're nearing a tunnel," she told him, quickly and confidently. "It's now or never, and I'm more likely to run across a train roof than Octavian." It was true. Reyna had hitchhiked trains before, and Octavian hadn't even seen one until a little while ago.

Jason gave her a quick, one-armed hug before grabbing Leila and Octavian. Reyna threw the food bag off the train and her friends quickly followed.

And because she was just so lucky, the door behind her burst open as soon as they left. She grabbed her dagger and got herself into a fighting stance as she faced her enemies. Then she gulped. Three giant brutes with bats and axes, thrice the size of her and with gnashing teeth. And one eye each.

She was good, but she wasn't _that_ good.

"Crap," she whispered, running through the opposite door. Maybe she could outrun them. Slamming the door behind her, she started sprinting and cursed Octavian in her head. What were all these crates doing in her way? Damn it, Octavian.

Instead of sprinting, she climbed and weaved her way through the next cart, and started up the ladder to the roof, where her track was clear. She was almost at the top when she felt the giant hand wrap around her ankle. She kicked the cyclops in the face. He snarled but didn't let go. She kicked him again and felt his nose break under her foot, but he still held on. He was pulling and pulling, and she would land on her head or break a bone or fall off the train. In a blind, desperate attempt to free herself, she threw her knife with semi-perfect aim and he let go.

When she got to the top of the train, she looked back to see him screeching and pulling the blade out of his wrist. She started running across the roof, aware of the approaching tunnel. She heard the heavy footsteps behind her and kept going.

Wait.

There was only one set of footsteps behind her.

And three monsters.

Her heart was pounding in her chest but she couldn't look back. She needed to focus on jumping from cart to cart without dying. She looked around for Jason and Octavian, and spotted the on the ground a little while away. Jason was in combat with one of the monsters, and Octavian was backing away from the second one so he could use his bow and arrow. Leila was running away as fast as she could.

 _Crap_ , she almost said again.

She heard the footsteps behind her getting faster and closer, and she jumped out of her skin when her hair was yanked back by a fist. She was swept off her feet and fell into the cyclops, feeling his huge arms wrapping around her and trapping her.

No matter how much she wriggled and kicked, she'd lost her knife and was defenceless against this beast. She felt the blade of his axe touch her neck and thought, _Jason won't have anyone to sit with anymore_. Before she even realised what she had just thought, the monster recoiled.

Reyna saw the three arrows sticking out of his neck and he exploded into gold powder.

She felt a moment of relief before she saw that the front of the train had already entered the tunnel, and she had no more time. Praying to the God of crazy stunts, she ran a little forward before jumping off the train.

She prepared to tuck and roll, but she never needed too. Jason caught her in mid-air and she felt herself grin. "Who the hell gave you permission to save me?" She asked.

"I thought that's what we do," he replied.

Unfortunately, she only got a moment of relief before Jason's cyclops caught up. He grabbed the demigod by the ankle and shook him until Reyna fell from his arms and fell to the ground. Less dangerous than jumping off a train, but it still hurt.

Then the cyclops swung Jason so hard and smashed him into the side of the train, just as is disappeared from reach.

"Jason!" She heard Octavian yell. Jason fell unconscious and the monster dropped him, forgetting all about him for a minute. A few feet away, Jason had dropped his sword to catch Reyna, who picked up the blade to run the monster through.

Then she turned to the last and final cyclops, who was ascending upon Octavian, who was out of arrows. Reyna ran as fast as she could, but she didn't make it fast enough.

Someone else did. Two women who through themselves off the cliffs surrounding them, landing on the cyclops and running him through. Reyna ran over to them, instantly alert in case they were a threat, and Octavian ran to her side. The two of them face their two saviours, baring arms, but Reyna dropped her sword.

"Hey, little sister," one of the women said.

Reyna just blinked. "Hylla."

* * *

 **Author's Note: *insert cheesey lines begging for reviews here* -Izzy**


	12. Haitus

**Hiatus**

Sorry guys, I really didn't want to do this. Not without a new chapter, anyway. I was going to write a new chapter for all of my stories and put this in the AN but I haven't had time to write in months and I don't think that's going to change any time soon.

I'm moving house, revising for my final exams and planning a holiday to Germany all at once, and although that doesn't sound like many things collectively, it's very time consuming.

This Hiatus will last probably until after Christmas, and then I'm going to try and finish off as many stories as possible.

I'm really sorry guys.

-Izzy


	13. Chapter 12

**AN: Guess who's back, back, back, back again, gain gain...**

 **IT'S ME!**

 **Thanks to Shutup-Percy for beta'ing as per usual.**

* * *

 **Chapter Twelve**

Dakota woke up on something cold and hard. His hand reached up to touch his neck but felt no wound or cut. It was slightly swollen, but nothing too concerning. "Gwen?" He grumbled as he sat up and looked around. It was in a small box of a room, with cold metal walls and a little sand on the floor. There was nothing in there except for a thin metal bed with no pillow or cover, and a rusty bucket.

"Hey," Gwen's voice replied, but she wasn't in the room with him.

"Where are you?" He asked, getting to his feet. He had been in nothing but swimming trunks when he was knocked out, but now he was wearing thin, rough beige sweatpants and a white tank top. At the end of his bed was a heavy red plaid shirt.

"In the cell next to you," Gwen replied. "Look down, next to the door." There was a wiry vent between him and Gwen, and he looked through it to see her curled up in a ball on her bed, tapping her fingers out of pure boredom. "I heard some monsters talk. They're planning on torturing us for information. Doesn't matter that we're kids. We're the enemy."

Dakota scoffed. "We're barely kids," he said. "Rome wouldn't allow that." There was a pause as he sighed, and leaned against the wall between them. He heard her move forward and do the same thing, so theoretically, they were back to back. "Go on then. What's your master plan for getting us out of here?"

"Why me?" Gwen asked. "Why don't you think of one?"

"Because you're the smart one, remember?" He answered. "Have you really been sat here for… however long you've been sat here for, and not thought of an escape plan?"

"I may have a few ideas cooking," she replied. "You know that high pain threshold of yours? How do you feel about putting it to good use?"

-0-0-0-0-0-

When they escaped the train, they were stranded in the middle of a desert. They hadn't had time to grab any of their things apart from the stuff they had on them. Which was a mushed ambrosia brownie, and the twenty dollars Reyna hid in her bra.

Hylla helped restrain Leila, and they hopped on to the next train North. After only half an hour, they came to a small motel in the middle of nowhere. It didn't have many rooms and looked more abandoned than anything else. But there was still a middle-aged woman half-asleep at the check-in, in khaki pants and a wife-beater vest.

They bought three different rooms and Hylla came in to visit Reyna's, so they could talk. For the first time in months.

"Your camp called my people," Hylla explained, standing in the bedroom of the suite, calling into the bathroom. "We heard you would be arriving and came to meet you."

"Is Jason going to be okay?" Reyna called in response. She stood in the shower, letting the hot water strip away the mud and blood from the last few days. She'd let the mess build up, putting it completely out of her mind. She was able to stand thanks to the Nectar the Amazons had supplied them with the promise they could give more to Bobby.

"I wanted him to give you the ambrosia, for your ankle. But his so-called brother insisted that he ate it. But one question. Is he what you care about right now?" Hylla scoffed. "You haven't seen me for months and you ask about your boyfriend?"

Reyna turned off the water and stepped out of the shower, wrapping the large towel around her shoulders and stepping back into the bedroom. "Of course I care about your time, Hy. But right now, you're not the one whose skull was dented against a train."

Hylla paused, sucking her teeth. "Fair play."

"So how are you?" Reyna asked. "Tell me everything."

Reyna could feel Hylla smiling. "I love it with the Amazons," she sighed, wistfully. "Being with such inspiring women, who are just so strong… I really found a home with them. And you can, too."

Reyna rolled her eyes, remembering the fight her and Hylla had gotten into about the Amazons. "Why would I want to?" She asked, finding the fresh clothes on the bed. Simple grey t-shirt, leggings and a thin cardigan. "I'm happy at camp. You know, with kids exactly like me?" She picked up the t-shirt and turned to Hylla.

If Reyna hadn't known her sister better, she would have sworn Hylla was pouting. "Okay," she said after a pause. Reyna just raised an eyebrow at her, and she continued. "Look, I let you go off and find the Camp months ago,. I'm not going to change my mind now. Even if I think it's stupid."

"Say that to the praetors," Reyna replied, laughing the subject off. "But really, Hylla, it's fantastic! I'm building a life for myself there," she continued. "I have family there. _We_ have family there. You would love them! It's my home now."

There was another brief moment before Hylla reached out and rubbed Reyna's arm. "I guess I'm just still worried about you."

"I can take care of myself," Reyna said, optimistically. It came out as more of a bite than a comment, but she didn't mean for it too. "Thanks to them. I'm going to find Jason."

"Wait," Hylla called after her, her arms crossed. "What are you going to need?"

"Three plane tickets to Chicago," she answered, almost instantly. "Four from Chicago to San Francisco. Enough nectar or ambrosia to save a life. Food and water, or money to buy some. And an advanced first-aid kit. Oh, and a change of clothes for the boys."

"I knew you still needed me," Hylla said, smirking. Then she nodded. "I'll see what I can do."

Reyna paused, crossing her own arms and facing Hylla. "You know," she mused, "you don't have to help us. You could just… not? I'd still be able to get to Chicago and complete the quest." She took a deep breath, keeping her voice deadly calm. "Rome taught me how to do that. And Jason's been like my sponsor, you know? Hylla, you know me better than anyone else, but do not underestimate me."

Determined to have the last word, she skipped through the door and into the cold.

-0-0-0-0-0-

About six hours into their sentence when the first guard came knocking. "Trays," he ordered.

Dakota took a deep breath and looked at the still-full tray of food with sat next to his bed. Gwen hadn't eaten anything either, but when the guard opened the latch on her door, she slid it outside. Dakota, however, didn't.

"Nah," he replied, leaning back and crossing his arms.

"Give me your tray," the guard ordered, angrily.

Dakota paused before speaking again. "Come and get it."

There was a pause as the guard briefed this idea with his partner. Then the large door opened and he stomped in. This was it. Dakota waited until he bent down to pick the tray up before he pounced. He landed on the guard and tried to flip him over, but the man found his way on top. He slammed his hard fist into Dakota's nose, then to his cheek, and then his head.

Dakota tried to fight back, but his arms were pinned down by the knees of the guard. _High pain threshold,_ he reminded himself. _You can do this. You've suffered worse beatings than this._

He sucked his teeth as he took another beating, and almost expected his neck to snap as the guard changed arms, pounding his face. His nose was definitely bleeding, and he tasted the metal in his mouth. His eye felt swollen already and there was possibly a cut on his forehead by the time the guard stopped.

"Nice try," the guard hissed in his ear. Dakota took a moment to try and figure out what he was. He wasn't a monster, so probably a demigod. One of the rogue ones. Probably a child of Mars or Bellona. He got off of him, but Dakota decided not to move yet. "Take him to the infirmary," the guard ordered his friend. Dakota felt himself being lifted into the air.

As they walked past Gwen's room, he muttered: "Lousy escape plan."

That was code for 'Phase One: Complete.'

The infirmary turned out to be a bedroom below deck, with no one around except Dakota. They tied him to the bed and left him. He looked around and found nothing useful. He sighed and waited, watching his own blood fall onto the pillows. He wondered where Luke was, and if he knew what Dakota had attempted. Was he coming to talk to him? Or to Gwen?

When the door opened however, it wasn't Luke who walked in, but a little girl. No older than eight or nine years old, with an apron around her waist and a hijab around her head. She looked perfectly sweet and innocent amongst the violence of the ship. She wheeled a small metal trolley into the room, and Dakota looked, but he saw no one behind her. No guards or monsters.

"I told them this was unnecessary," she said, beginning to untie the ropes that kept him to the bed. "I don't like my patients tied up."

Dakota blinked, his mouth falling open in shock. "You're the doctor?" He asked in disbelief. "But you're just… how old are you?" She didn't answer immediately, but she did give him a small smile.

"I'm qualified," she told him, like a reassurance. "You're Dakota, right? I'm Ira." She dipped a cloth into some water and began cleaning the blood from his face when he sat up. "The guards here can be quite brutal to those who try to escape them. I recommend you just sit tight and try not to start a fight."

"You've obviously never been to Rome," he noted.

She didn't reply as she examined the cut on his forehead. "You won't need stitches," she said, quite optimistically. Instead, she just stuck a plaster to him, and handed him a shot-glass filled with nectar. "I'm not allowed to give you too much, but this should stop the swelling and decrease some of the bruises." Dakota paused before taking the glass from her and drinking.

"Thank you," he said.

Ira clicked her tongue before leaning forward and whispering: "What's Rome like?"

There was a long pause before Dakota answered. "It's beautiful," he replied. "And strong. You're there, and you feel like you can do anything. And you can. Why?"

She shrugged. "I wanted to go and see it," she answered, thinking. "I was going to Lupa when Luke found me. He said they needed me here, so I stayed."

"You know they're the bad guys, right?" Dakota asked.

Ira just shook her head. "That's what they say about you." She sighed before standing up. "There's a guard outside to take you back to your cell. I'll go and get him." She left without another word.

Dakota paused, watching her go before snapping himself back to reality and turning to the metal tray of medical equipment. He scanned his eyes over it before finding the tweezers. When the guard came back in, Dakota said nothing. He pulled Dakota roughly to his feet and out the door, and he was silent the entire way back to the cell, where the guard pushed him in and locked the door.

"Thing of that as a warning," he said. "Don't try and escape again."

Dakota waited until he had left entirely, and was completely out of earshot before pulling the thin metal tweezers out of his mouth. "Gwen, I got them," he whispered.

He heard a slight laughter coming from Gwen's cell before she replied. "Perfect!" She said. "They won't be back until morning for breakfast, which gives us plenty of time. And lucky for everyone: I'm the skinniest I've been all year."

That made Dakota stop in his tracks, and he face fell. He'd been joining the dots for a little while now, but that last comment just got him riled up about it. Just got him to really figure it out. "Gwen, are you bulimic?" He said, bursting out with the question insensitively.

There was a pause. "What?" Gwen asked.

Dakota took a deep breath, preparing for the storm he was about to start. "I've seen the scars on your knuckles, and I know how much time you can spend in a bathroom, with the taps on. You barely eat, but when you do, you disappear after every meal. You didn't eat your last meal, because you have nowhere to purge it. I'm very observant."

"And very intrusive," Gwen snapped. Then there was another pause. "I didn't know you paid that much attention."

"Does Octavian know?" Dakota asked.

"No," Gwen replied. "He knew a couple years ago, but… not now."

There was a long pause, again, before Dakota spoke. "You can fight that battle when we get back to camp, but for now… we need to get out of here. You ready?" He pulled the elastic out of his jogging trousers and tied the end to the tweezers.

"You're damn right," Gwen replied, plastering on the optimist. Both of them moved over to the doors of their cells. Big metal things with bars over a small gap. Looking out, Dakota made sure the security camera wasn't facing them before sticking his arm through the bars.

"Now!" He told Gwen. Her arm came out too, and he started swinging the elastic, trying to get the tweezers into her hand.

"Hide!" He heard her exclaim. He pulled the tweezers back in and stood next to his door. Gwen watched the security camera and waited until it turned away again before telling him to continue.

They had to do that three more times until Gwen finally took hold of the cold metal tweezers. She pulled them into her cell and Dakota let go of the elastic.

-0-0-0-0-0-

Reyna didn't have to go very far before she found Jason. He was lying in the bed in the room next to hers, sat up against the headboard with pale skin and tired eyes, but otherwise minimal injuries. He had a collection of cards in his hands, and Octavian, who sat on the chair by the bed, was shuffling some more.

"I swear to Jupiter, Tavy, if you ask me about the reunion one more time… Reyna!" Jason brightened up when she walked in and she smiled at him, forgetting her dispute with Hylla and sitting on the edge of his bed.

"How are you doing?" She asked him, looking at his deck and smirking, knowing there was no way he was going to beat Octavian with those cards.

"I'm fine," Jason said, shrugging slightly. "Octavian's going to be crushed when we play this hand."

Octavian looked doubtful. "I don't even know what game we're playing," he admitted with a head shake. He flashed a small smile to Reyna, who returned it, trying to hide her surprise.

"What reunion were you talking about?" Reyna asked.

Octavian and Jason exchanged a look before Octavian answered. "My family's, in a couple weeks' time. It's a big fancy evet that happens every year, which becomes a cover for informal deals with the senate. Jason's supposed to go because he's adopted into the family."

"But since I'm only adopted into the family for popularity points," Jason said, "I'd rather sit this one out. Why do you want me there so much anyway?"

Octavian shrugged. "Because it's going to suck, but maybe it'll suck less with you. I guess I just need my brother, is all."

"You should go," Reyna told him. "For the food, if nothing else."

Jason laughed and handed his cards back to Octavian, bored. "So, what happens now? I'm good to go, you two look fine. I say we find some fresh clothes and get to Chicago, with five days to spare. Sound good?"

"Hylla's going to get us plane tickets," Reyna chimed in, helpfully. "With some more supplies. We should get back to camp within forty eight hours."

"When do we leave?" Octavian asked.

Reyna stood up and walked over to the door, calling out: "Hey, Hylla? When can you get us that stuff?" She sounded pretty optimistic, but when Hylla walked over, she was looking blank, and confused.

"What stuff?" Hylla asked.

"The tickets, and supplies," Reyna said, her face falling. She'd played this game with Hylla too many times to not know where it was headed. Hylla was going to pick a fight, and Reyna would play along with it.

"Oh yeah!" Hylla said, as if just remembering. "I thought you didn't need my help?"

Reyna rolled her eyes. "Seriously? Hylla, there's a kid starving to death somewhere in Chicago, okay? Let's just not get petty right now."

"Just admit that you need me," Hylla demanded, clearly trying to play with her.

Reyna paused, taking a deep breath. "Hylla, if I had joined the Amazons with you, I'm sure I'd still be very reliant on you, considering they teach you nothing about survival, and instead, the importance of making men pay for the sins of their ancestors, but I went to Camp Jupiter instead, and you chose to let me. Now you have to live with that decision. So why are you taking this opportunity to try and humiliate me?"

Hylla narrowed her eyes and took a step forward. "Last time I saw you, you were innocent. You just wanted to chase the butterflies, protect me – even if you couldn't, and make peace. You relied on me, because you thought with your heart. Now you're convinced you're hard because you're Roman, and you let your ego dictate your decisions."

Reyna could almost feel her fists ball up by her sides and decided to do something with her hands. Without having a plan as to what, she ended up doing a double face-palm. "That's not…" She trailed off before she even started. Truth be told, she did need Hylla's help. As much as she wished she didn't, she probably always would. She wanted to be strong an independent, but… she needed her big sister. "Are you really thinking about doing nothing to save a kid's life?"

"Maybe," Hylla said, shrugging.

"Hylla, I'm not that different. It's not like I need to be fixed." Reyna was seething, but maybe her sister had a point. Camp Jupiter had changed her. She was less fascinated by the world and much angrier. Gwen had bullied her just a little, and Reyna was willing to ruin her. Yeah, she was stronger, but perhaps the changes weren't for the best. "I can't be fixed…"

"Even you can tell you've changed," Hylla told her.

Reyna shook her head. "Look, if you want someone to blame for not knowing me, look at yourself. You haven't talked to me for six months."

Hylla paused then. "I needed breathing room," she defended.

"No, you shut me out," Reyna backfired. "And now you show up here and you want me to join you? Like a family? Like nothing happened? I'm not going to give up the life I built for myself while you had your breathing room. Jason and Octavian may fight like dogs, but in the end they would do anything for each other. We were like that, Hylla. We protect each other. We help each other. We always have."

Hylla sighed. "Well, like you said, huh? You have a whole new family in New Rome, remember?"

"That doesn't mean I don't still need you," Reyna finally admitted, excepting defeat.

Her older sister paused, trying not to smile. "I'll see if I can't get your stuff by morning," she said. "But you'll probably have to wait until this time tomorrow."

Hylla left and after a minute, so did Reyna, insisting she needed to go for a walk. In the middle of the night. In the middle of nowhere. All by herself.

Jason tried to sit up, but winced. Hylla had insisted on giving Reyna most of the nectar, for her leg, and he'd only gotten a little ambrosia. Instead, he looked to Octavian. "Go with her, will you?" He pleaded. "Just to make sure she's okay."

Octavian paused before getting to his feet and following her out.

-0-0-0-0-0-

Gwen had picked many locks in her time. It was one of those simple survival skills everyone needed to know if they were going to survive in their world. The door to her cell was heavy, thick and metal, with thick bars over a square of space. And it was un-pick-able. Mostly because it was an automatic door, with a keypad on the outside and no actual key hole.

However, undoing screws were much easier.

"How's it going in there?" She heard Dakota call.

"Ten more minutes," she replied, sitting on the floor at the end of her bed and dismantling the headboard. "How's your face?"

"Battered," he replied. Gwen could relate. She was an absolute mess, with her hair up and dirt on her face from god knows where. Her ugly prisoner clothes were covered in sand from the floor, and nobody would look at her and guess Venus. "I've survived worse," Dakota added.

Gwen paused, letting go of the tweezers for a moment and resting. She was intuitive, for sure, and had picked up a few notes from Dakota. He trained like he was going into battle tomorrow. He flinched when people came too close. He had an intense need to please. "Parents or monsters?" She asked him.

There was a long pause before he replied. "Same thing, really. How'd you guess?"

"I'm smart, remember?" She said, sighing. "When did they tell you that you were adopted?"

"Last year," Dakota answered, faster this time. "I guess it was the last straw. I ran away, mad that… well I didn't understand for a while, because I wasn't even his son. I don't know why I punished me so bad. I guess it was because he couldn't give his wife a child and he punished me for it."

"I would have though Child Services did something to stop it," she told him. "I'm sorry."

"Yeah, I am too," he answered. There was a long pause, so Gwen went back to work, disconnecting the leg of the bed from the frame. Dakota spoke again a little while after. "I used to get picked first for everything," he told her. "Teams, training, demonstrations, partnerships. I work hard, and it pays off. But now, I'm sat here, in a cell, bruised and pouring my feelings out to my worst enemy. I'm weak."

Gwen stopped again, biting her lip before speaking. "Octavian's the only one who knows about my bulimia, and he didn't do anything about it. I don't think he knew what to do… When it goes away, I keep myself just the tiniest bit overweight, like a reward. To prove to myself that I can. But then when the time comes, that extra little bit of chub it what sends me over the edge." There was a long pause before she got to the point: "If you're weak, I don't even want to think about what I am. At least you can live in your own skin."

"Gwen, you're beautiful," he told her. "And for a while, I thought that was it. But you're strong, you're powerful and you're smart. That's pretty awesome."

"I used to think you were just an arrogant jock," she said to contradict him. "And you are, but you're also-"

"Damaged?"

She paused. "Kind," she corrected. There was an even longer pause than before, as Gwen finished removing the bed leg. "Hey, Dakota?"

"Yeah?" He asked.

"I'd pick you first."

She didn't say anything else as she got to her feet. She grabbed the small packet of butter from her last meal and took off her jogging trousers. Then she rubbed the butter along her hips and grabbed the metal bar that used to be part of the bed. She slid it between the bars of the door and grabbed onto the pipes on the ceiling, jumping off the floor.

She put her bare feet on the bed leg, and began jumping against it, watching it knock against the other bars. She put all of her strength onto the bars. Finally, they began to dent. More and more until they were on a right angle. And eventually, one of the bars pinged off.

"It's done!" Gwen called successfully to Dakota. She didn't have time to hear his praise or break off the other bar. The security camera was turning back around as she spoke. She pushed her pants, flannel shirt and sneakers through the hole and then began to climb through it herself. It was a tight squeeze, even with her skinniest form. She pushed herself so hard through the gap she felt a layer of skin from her arms begin to peel off, but she ignored the pain and pushed through.

She landed in a heap on the floor and ran straight up to the security camera, jumping up and ripping it out of it's socket. She slipped on her joggers and trainers and waited by the door that led to their cells.

When the security guard came in to investigate the broken camera, she hit him so hard on the head with her bed's leg, that he fell to the floor, unconscious, and she turned towards the keypad of Dakota's door, and realising that she had no idea what the combination was.

"I think it's like, 77," Dakota started, "no, 76, then 8, then… I don't know…" To spare time, Gwen just took her metal bed leg and slammed the end into the key pad, breaking the system. Then she pulled the door open by herself. "Or we could just do that." Dakota nodded.

She pulled her flannel shirt on over her tank top and Dakota followed her out of the dungeon. On the deck, everyone had disappeared, off the bed as night had fallen. They weren't out for long before the alarms sounded.

"Run!" Gwen ordered. It wasn't too far away to the lifeboats, but demigods and monsters came flooding out quickly.

They swerved around corners, careful not to trip over their feet. They knocked boxes and furniture over to block the army's path and made it to the lifeboat. Gwen started to untie it. "Dakota, can you help?" She asked. No reply. "Dakota?!" She turned back around to see Luke pulling Dakota away from her and slamming him against a nearby wall, pressing a sword to his throat. There was a pause before Gwen turned back to the ropes. Dakota could take care of himself for a little while, right?

"If you're not going to tell me anything willingly," Luke growled, "I'll make you talk. And then I'll kill you."

"No!" She heard Dakota yell. "I don't deserve it."

"Oh, I think you do," Luke replied. "Look around you! Gwen's more concerned with the boat than you. Wouldn't there be someone here to save you? There's no one here! There's a reason no one cares that you have the most expensive armour. No one cares that you have perfect hair. No one cares that you're the best in your cohort. Nobody cares that you need this stuff. No one cares that you're _broken_ , Dakota!"

Gwen took a deep breath before picking up her very useful metal pole and whacking him around the head with it as hard as she could. "Come on!" She called, jumping onto the newly freed lifeboat and lowering it down. Dakota joined her, clearly rattled by what Luke had said.

"Stop!" Called another voice. Gwen looked up to see a little girl on the deck, clearly unsure of what to do in this situation.

"Wait," Dakota told Gwen. He held a hand out to the little girl, looking pleading. "Ira. Come with us."

"I… I can't-"

"Yes you can," Dakota insisted. "You can see New Rome. It's so beautiful. You said you wanted to, Ira. You know we're the good guys. Just come with us, and you'll see."

There was a long pause as the girl – Ira – looked between her army, who were clambering their way over the boxes, and Dakota's outstretched hand. "We need to go," Gwen said, in his ear. He sighed and started to lower his hand. Gwen cut the wires and they landed in the ocean.

He started the engine and they sailed as quickly as possible through the night.

-0-0-0-0-0-

Reyna didn't even make it out into the courtyard of the motel before Octavian caught up. He jogged up to her, who seemed to by gliding past with built up frustration in every step. When he did finally catch up to her, he grabbed her by the arm to slow her down, as he fell into step with her.

"What do you want, Octavian?" She asked, angrily.

"To make sure you're not getting yourself into any trouble," he said. "Jason's not quite ready to run through streets after you, so I'm on babysitting duty." She just glared at him and he felt slightly bad. Maybe now wasn't the time to condescend her. "Sorry."

"Why are you sorry?" She asked him. "You hate me, remember? I mean, you always tell me that I'm a bad person, and I know that's true. I've done some horrible things, and maybe I shouldn't have waged war on your girlfriend, but… I'm not that terrible, am I? Like, I know I'm stubborn and vengeful, but I can't stand the idea of letting people walk all over me. But a minute ago, I was considering fighting my case and winning, even if that meant risking Bobby. I'm really that awful?"

"Wait, who's Bobby?" He asked.

Reyna blinked. "The kid that we're going to go and save," she explained. "I had a dream about him."

Octavian paused, contemplating his answer. "I mean… when I first met you, I kind of thought you were everything I hated about girls in one unfeeling, hypocritical package of evil. But most of that was from what Gwen told me. But now I've been on this quest with you and, well, you're not _that_ bad."

"Not that bad?" Reyna asked, doubtfully.

He shrugged. "I've seen you in a fight, and you know how to rob people and jump on trains, so that's pretty cool."

There was a short pause before Reyna replied. "She hates me," she told him, honestly. "Hylla hates me."

"No, she doesn't hate you. She doesn't really respect you, either." Octavian sighed. "She'll get over it," he promised her. "Look, we should probably go back now…"

"How is she supposed to respect me if she backs me into a corner and I have to do everything she says?" Reyna shook her head, her eyes beginning to glisten. "I can't go back there," she said. "Hylla will be there and I'm so… I'm just not ready." She trailed off as she swallowed back what was probably a sob. Octavian felt bad for her, watching her force back her emotions. He wondered what Jason said to her to get her to open up. "I'm scared of what she'll say next."

There was a long pause until Octavian took a very deep breath. "Look, I'm like you, okay? I want to prove to everyone that I can get what I want. That I can do it myself. I want to show that I can win. But the thing is… teams win, Reyna. Loners lose. It may suck, but saying what you said to Hylla… that was taking one for the team."

He nodded. "Okay," he agreed. "We'll stay out a little longer."

Reyna opened her mouth to reply, but spotted something over his shoulder. Instantly her face fell straight and her eyes turned hard. "Actually," she mused, "I know somewhere we can talk." She started walking off and Octavian paused.

He realised that he should probably just go with her, and followed her into a wide space behind the motel. Out of all of the behind-building spaces they had slept in in the last few days, this one was pretty bright and clean, with only a few boxes, bins and old paint cans on the clear floor. Reyna grabbed his arm and lead him behind a thick plastic bin, ducking down out of sight.

"What is it?" Octavian whispered.

Reyna didn't reply. Instead, she picked up a rock and threw it into a pile of paint cans a little further down the alley, knocking them over. Then she covered Octavian's mouth when he tried to ask why. He licked it and she pinched him.

But he fell silent when somebody walked past them, her eyes on the paint cans and her back straight. She looked perfectly human. Pale with a leather jacket and neat hair. She kept walking until she was facing away from them, which is when Reyna stood up. "Boo," she said.

Octavian stood up with her, hoping to add strength in numbers when the creepy girl turned around. "You're not very good at recognising sssuperiors, are you?" She asked challengingly. In one swift movement, she flipped Octavian into a headlock, her muscles squeezing his neck. She glared at Reyna, who looked around for something to use. He really should have bought his bow.

"Who the hell are you?" Reyna demanded.

"A friend of Lukesss," the girl replied. Octavian couldn't see her true self behind the mist, but he could hear the split tongue hissing. A draecona. He remembered learning about the snake women in training. "He has your people. Now, we're going to get Jasson Grace and he'll join us as we find him, or your friend here will die. One little ssnap…"

"Why don't you pick on someone your own size?" Reyna demanded. Octavian was about to ask what the hell she meant, but she kept talking without pause. "Why pick on the boys? They can't help themselves. Come after a girl. I dare you."

The monster sounded almost amused. "You're challenging me, little girl?"

Reyna nodded, confidently. "I can take you."

Octavian decided to ask Reyna where she got her confidence from, and if he could get some. She lunged right forward and grabbed the wrists of the monster, pressing and twisting all the right places to get Octavian free. He would also ask her how to do that, to be honest. He ran free and rubbed his throat, watching them for a second.

Reyna thrust her fist up, hitting the draecona in the chin and forcing its head back. That was a good move. If she did it on a human, it could have damaged teeth, which had plenty of nerve endings nearby. Plus, the head rolling caused slight disorientation so she could prepare her next move.

But this was not a human. It grabbed Reyna with one hand by the neck, and forced her back against the brick wall. Octavian watched as the monster squeezed and Reyna struggled to breath. He looked around for something to help, but Reyna had it covered.

She aimed another punch at it's face, but this time it dodged. But it did distract it enough for Reyna to peal the hand away from her neck and aim it towards her mouth. Octavian felt himself cringing as she bit down as hard as possible until the skin began to break.

The monster cried out and Reyna aimed a kick for the chest, pushing it off of her. She straightened up and spat, just in case of any remaining monster blood. It wasn't particularly harming, but it probably didn't taste great.

Octavian took the opportunity to bring the beast down by kicking it behind the knees and watching it fall to the floor. He shoved it further down while it was still disorientated, and Reyna aimed another kick for its stomach, which made him fall against the wall.

She looked around for a weapon, but Octavian had already found one. "Here!" He called out, drawing Reyna's attention to the giant wooden stick he'd broken off a crate. It wasn't Imperial Gold, but it should buy them some time.

Reyna shoved it into the monster's chest, right through the heart. It didn't die, but it gave them time to run away, back to the hotel.

Hylla and her friends were ready for the monster within a minute of their return, and Reyna left them to fight, going in to see Jason. Octavian gave them some time alone, figuring that Reyna needed it. Besides, he needed a word with her sister.

"She doesn't deserve this, Hylla," Octavian told her, as she retreated back into the kitchenette after the kill. "She's a good person. She's kind, and smart, and interesting. She's tough, and loyal. She's your sister, Hylla."

Hylla just shook her head. "She's changed, so much."

Octavian thought back to what Hylla said before. Reyna just wanted to chase butterflies and enjoy life and help people. He thought back to the train jumping, and the little shop, and the way she fought to protect him.

"You have no idea how wrong you are about that."

* * *

 **AN: If you review I'll be your best friend for all of time.**


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